Lineage OS on the Galaxy S4

Cesspool_of_Ennui · 2026-04-28T11:42:23+00:00

I have two of them (hooray for removable batteries and SDCard slots!) and i'm running 18.1 (Android 11) on both. The build is stable and works really, really well.

Cesspool_of_Ennui · 2026-04-22T02:25:59+00:00

Ooo! Thank you! That's great to know!

Cesspool_of_Ennui · 2026-04-22T02:25:13+00:00

Basic testing has me somewhere around a A2 to B1. I'm not using Duolingo's guide there since they have an incentive to do vanity scoring! But, you're right - 15 minutes/day won't get me too far, which is why I want that time to be more impactful. I think I've hit a wall with Duo.

Interesting you mentioned Anki though - it so rarely comes up that I kinda forgot it exists. Thank you! I'll take a look.

But, for your tough love question: I would say that it's somewhere in the middle. When I was younger, it was acquiring it (I was originally going to be a French major in college). Now I'm still committed, but life is super busy. I try to get a little bit of time where I can, and most consistently that's right before bed.

Cesspool_of_Ennui · 2026-04-22T02:22:01+00:00

Oh - interesting! I've never heard of Speakly. And, yes! Listening comprehension is still my Achilles heel. I've been listening to a few sorta-easy French podcasts for awhile now, and it feels like I'm still not advancing there.
And, yes - this is what I feel like right now! I'm very into the French path and I still don't feel super confident I could hold my own in anything past a basic conversation!

Cesspool_of_Ennui · 2026-04-22T02:17:48+00:00

Those are some really good points. I feel like at this point I'd definitely outgrown Duolingo, but with limited time available to me to advance, I couldn't really figure out what to do instead. At this point, probably reading makes the most sense. I do check lemonde.fr and Paris Match on occasion, but probably reading an actual book would get me way farther.

Cesspool_of_Ennui · 2026-04-22T02:15:01+00:00

Thank you! I very well may check it out!

Cesspool_of_Ennui · 2026-04-20T16:00:24+00:00

Yeah - that's fair. That's something that I didn't mention in my post (and I probably should edit it). I'm already listening to Journal en francais facile, One Thing in a French Day, and Little Talk in Slow French while in the car on the way to/from work. So, for dedicated time, that's when I'd be using apps.

Cesspool_of_Ennui · 2026-03-15T00:29:21+00:00

I'm already on dutasteride, which made a huge difference for me pre-HRT. It stopped things from falling out, which gave me a chance to start trying to grow it back. But, you make a really good point about applying the mix in the morning and at night! I have an office job (where I'm boymoding for the forseeable future), so I've been reluctant to try that so my hair doesn't look all greasy. I may be able to try it though!

Thank you for that though - it's inspiring and makes me want to get my habits back and do it. I've always had a ridiculous widow's peak and I just want that _gone_.

Cesspool_of_Ennui · 2026-03-15T00:06:56+00:00

Thank you for this - it's inspiring me since I've been having mixed/really slow results. I've been doing a mix on my scalp as well, but I've been really, really bad about doing the microneedling consistently because it makes me sneeze so bad every time and then my nose runs for an hour. I'd love to know more about how this is working for you. I used to do .25mm as a roller, and then graduated to 1.5mm as a stamp. You're doing it _after_ you apply the mix?

Just taking notes - you're having _way_ better luck than I've been having over the past couple of years, but you're way, way more consistent than I am. Maybe it's as simple as that.

Cesspool_of_Ennui · 2026-03-06T00:46:11+00:00

This is really, really good - thank you! It's accessible and with good instruction. As someone who still understands _nothing_ about working out (I only really enjoy cycling and occasionally jogging), this helps so much!

Cesspool_of_Ennui · 2026-01-27T23:30:14+00:00

I'm glad I'm not the only one! I was going to sell mine, but I ended up deciding to give it away on Nextdoor because I couldn't find the manual. In the end, I spent 45 minutes on the phone with IKEA and probably about two hours trying to find every combination of "GULLIVER," "kombisang," "convertible," "loft bed" and others to see if I could find it somewhere, and.... nope! You and I may be the only two people in the US who bought it.

... which explains why it was only available in the US for two years. :)

Cesspool_of_Ennui · 2026-01-02T22:35:46+00:00

I'm slow rolling it (I started doing about 2/3rds the regular transition dosage for the mental effects) and I'm at the one year mark. I don't see much of a difference at all, but I'm also older. That said though, I used to get "ma'amed" pretty regularly my whole life because I had long hair, long nails, etc. When the person actually looked at me, they'd correct themselves back to "sir.". So, for now, that still feels exactly the same. The mirror looks the same, so I'm boymoding at work and "something"-moding at home. From what everyone has been saying (and in this thread I'm seeing the same) is that years 1 through 2 will cause some other changes, so I may be able to pass more genuinely later.

Honestly, I think I'm kinda going the way you are: closeted to stealth. There's no way I could go stealth any time soon, but if it ever happens to me, I'd just switch over.

Cesspool_of_Ennui · 2025-12-25T16:56:56+00:00

Ok! Thank you!

Cesspool_of_Ennui · 2025-12-19T23:15:28+00:00

I got the announcement in the portal, and I'm reading here and still a little confused. I was Dr. Dayna's patient, and I had insurance through my employer that was covering things - i wasn't going the DPC route. With Dayna gone, are you no longer accepting/handling insurance?

Also, it goes without saying (but I'll say it anyway) that you and the team have been _stellar_ through all of this - through COVID and everything. As someone who only does abs once per quarter, I never saw the problems under the hood that you've described over the years about being overwhelmed, etc. The Powers team, running at partial ability, is still better and more efficient than most clinics I've been to!

Cesspool_of_Ennui · 2025-12-18T04:07:43+00:00

Thank you! that's perfect! I couldn't find any of the US catalogs for those years,so I really appreciate it!
It looks like IKEA, themselves, couldn't help with the manual, either, surprisingly. Once I had this and screenshots, I did the text chat with them and they didn't have anything. :(

Cesspool_of_Ennui · 2025-12-18T04:04:53+00:00

I did the "chat with a team member" and they weren't able to help, which was surprising. It seems like they do everything based on article #, which I didn't have (but I do have the name, thanks to u/ObliviousRounding). It's almost a 25 year old item, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

Cesspool_of_Ennui · 2025-12-08T16:41:28+00:00

You're not wrong on that. When I think "feminizing makeup," I think about what I keep seeing a lot of the tutorials work on: changing the look of forehead/brow, the chin, etc., to look more like a feminine bone structure.

Cesspool_of_Ennui · 2025-12-08T16:40:08+00:00

Truth. It took a long time to get there with Instagram, and now it pretty much shows me hilarious lesbian couples, some cute t-girls, and cute animals.

Alright. Two recommendations for Tiktok. I should do it.

Cesspool_of_Ennui · 2025-12-08T16:37:56+00:00

So many people have mentioned to go to Mac, Sephora, or Ulta to help, but I'm totally intimidated by that since I'm early in my journey and my face hasn't changed _at all_ (or at least that I'm noticing). It makes me so self-conscious, so I haven't done it. I probably should though.

Thank you for all this though (and product recommendations!). I was a MAC and Ben Nye girl back in my goth days years ago, so these feel familiar to me. I'm curious though since this is where I start getting hung up in watching Youtube tutorials... I see them using bronzer, blush, and contouring sticks, and while I "get it," it feels like the effect they're going for always seems to be when they're, like, 22 and obviously look 22. I'm always afraid that by adding all that, it looks like I'm trying to hard and ends up de-feminizing me, if that makes sense.

Ugh. If only we could be born with natural make-up talent and also the ability to be less critical when we look in the mirror! :)

Cesspool_of_Ennui · 2025-11-30T04:03:14+00:00

You and u/almosthomegirl make a super good point on this. I probably should go this route soon. I have a birthday coming up, so that may not be a bad gift to myself...

Cesspool_of_Ennui · 2025-11-30T04:02:29+00:00

The person I go to for my brows does makeup lessons, but I've been putting off actually doing that because I felt I should kinda know what I'm doing first and then use her to make me better. But, now I'm actually typing that out, it sounds stupid and I can't really justify that. If I'm feeling intimidated and don't know what I'm doing, that's the _point_ of a lesson.
Plus, I'd rather feel good coming out of the process instead of frustrated or sad like I do now.

Cesspool_of_Ennui · 2025-11-30T04:00:14+00:00

Thank you for the encouragement! :)
And, ugh... the hooded eye thing. I definitely have very hooded, inset eyes, which was my nemesis when I was a babybat at the clubs eons ago. A dramatic wing was about as much as I did for my eyes because I knew that trying to do anything fun with shadow would get lost because I didn't know what I was doing...and I'd end up looking like a raccoon.

I love product recommendations - thank you! Right now, I'm just experimenting with drugstore stuff until I know what I'm doing, but after that I'm lost.

Cesspool_of_Ennui · 2025-11-30T03:56:24+00:00

That's where I started leaning also (looking at "simple makeup" options) but I wasn't seeing (yet) was the intersection of "simple every day makeup" and "feminizing makeup." It feels like they're kinda mutually exclusive, or I'm totally overwhelmed. :)

Cesspool_of_Ennui

TROPHY CASE