The old meeting industry normal is long over, and many event professionals are still hoping and waiting for a new normal…
https://www.conferencesthatwork.com/index.php/meeting-industry/2022/02/meeting-industry-normal-3
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#masking
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I can go months, perfectly content in my #mask, no one bothering me, and then -- boom! A random person makes a disparaging comment & my fortitude is shaken. I need to tell myself to brush it off, buck up, remind myself that I'm being reasonable in trying to protect my health & others'.
It's just a lot of mental & emotional work. And it shouldn't be necessary, but it is.
Which is upsetting & infuriating. But I can't let it get to me, or I wouldn't be able to keep #masking.
Replied in thread
Domo 
This one's on people who talk about the few places they wear masks still.
https://bsky.app/profile/doodlesbycharlie.bsky.social/post/3lr4m5gut3c2y
Bluesky Social · charlie (@doodlesbycharlie.bsky.social)not asking for perfection, but expecting consistency in your protection. if we actually care and we can, the list of places we mask won’t shrink, they’ll expand.
Continued thread
"Girl, Interrupted" but it's about a burnt-out AuDHD girl -- desperately trying to maintain focus and her train of thought -- who gets more and more agitated every time she's interrupted, until finally all of her coping techniques fail her, her mask breaks, and she has a neurospicy meltdown due to overload and overwhelm 
Continued thread
Bigotry suspected
Wife and I laying in bed, joking about how she pretended to like a lot of things I liked early in our relationship because of comphet and toxic monogamy.
Me: “Our relationship was built on lies!!”
Her: *turns to me and stares meaningfully*
Me: … “okay, fair.”
Wear a mask.
Fascists want masks for themselves to hide their identities. Fascists want themselves safely masked and protected from illness, they want you to become ill, they want you to spread that illness to elders, disabled people, and sick kids. They want you to take part in hurting others. They want to say you did this too, and they want to cast their blame off onto you.
Take back your masks and your right to protect yourself and others. Masks are a visible and obvious sign of compassion and care, and those two things are powerfully antifascist.
Many autistic children use a doll as an intermediary to interact with the world and people, a toy that usually represents a character the child admires. They then use the toy to say things, imitating their voice and having the character say what they really want to say.
Well, I discovered with my diagnosis that I've done the same thing, using different characters for each type of interaction. On social media, one of those characters was a black cat, specifically Salem, from the series Sabrina, the Teenage Witch. Salem's personality was (and largely still is) my alter ego, or my most authentic side. One day I saw a GIF of Salem sharpening her claws while seemingly staring and listening indifferently to someone, and I laughed heartily because that's who I am.
After a few months, I realized that I can't express my best sarcasm, the kind I use to suppress the impatience and anger that overwhelms me when interacting with "normal" people. I'm not afraid of exposure or doxxing (maybe I should be, but I'm pretty crazy and reckless), but I hide my true nature and thoughts behind personas because my true ways seem difficult for many people to bear. I'm not interested in protecting adults, which I do with children and animals, and that's why I have no problem telling you to fuck off without stopping if you bother me enough. It doesn't worry me, but it does take away a bit of the inner peace I have by default.
When I use personas (especially cats), I use a lot of sarcasm, humor, and indifference toward many things people consider overly serious or toward people who are overly emotional and fragile (pusillanimous, in my dictionary).
Salem doesn't give a shit and always wants to take over the world, but he never actually succeeds (because he doesn't really want to; it's more comfortable being a cat). And he's punished for his frank and innocently selfish behavior. I even think Salem is autistic. He'd probably be accepted into some autistic cybercriminal group like $LAPSUS, but when he wants to be evil, he ends up being funny.
I'm very tempted to go back to my cat characters because they're much more fun than me without masks. With my mental connection toy, I seem calmer and more fun. Without it, I can be a hermit in a cave without a care in the world.
But maybe I'm just crazy...
@actuallyautistic
### Dear CBT (cc ABA), masking is not success.
Any one’s life experiences can be traumatizing. Mine mostly involve #ADHD and #religious teachings both of which lead me down patterns of beliefs that were not helpful for me in the end. Don’t let anyone tell you yours is invalid. https://ty-whit.github.io/ADHD/Masking
#trauma #healing #therapy #masking
Quartz 4Masking and the trauma it causesDisclamer I’m going to say this at the beginning: if you’re neurodivergent, you almost certainly don’t need this article.
Have you experienced or seen secondhand the ending of romantic and/or sexual relationships or partnerships over one or more parties following COVID precautions/disagreements about masking, etc.?
Have you experienced the ending of romantic/sexual relationships or partnerships due to one or more parties being COVID-cautious (related to masking and other protective measures)?
[informal poll]
Customer service shoutout to Vogmask. I'd ordered two new KN94 masks from them because the last couple ones I'd been using wore out. So I ordered two more.
Last night I opened the delivered package to discover, to my surprise, that it contained FOUR masks, not two.
And there was a note from a staffer saying they had run out of the specific size and color of one of the masks on my order. So they tossed in a size down of the same design, AND two more masks. And a headstrap for all four, which I also hadn't ordered.
So that was a nice surprise. I'd recommend Vogmask anyway as their masks have reliably protected me and mine from both COVID AND wildfire smoke, but this was bonus. :)
July is coming up, so: Does anyone know where to get disability pride flag masks (ideally in Germany or at least EU)?
en.wikipedia.orgDisability flag - Wikipedia
Even some of the already disabled patients seem to think so! 
Tuesday, colleague A (young) comes to work complaining of light #cold symptoms
Friday, colleague B (middle age) arrived to work with similar initial symptoms. Then arrived today with full-blown snot monster and desk full of drugs.
Colleague C and D already coughing and sneezing too.
People still ask me why I haven't stopped #masking in the office but never ask anyone why they come to work full of #contagious #virus
I'm at the airport. Aside from me, the only other people I've seen #masking is a pair of Asian ladies. One of them had some kind of head cover, and a brilliant solution for the mask: two pins on the sides of the head cover, with the mask loops hanging from them. My ears are so envious!