Am I reading this right? 8) Nickel and Dimed, by Barbara Ehrenreich? I know it get's bandied about politically, but why censor it? I read it and didn't find it objectionable. Anyone know why?

This really bothers me. I am on G+, with my name, but only because I recently legally changed it. I couldn't have used it before because I have abusive family that were stalking me. They are terrible with "the internets" so a legal name change solved the basic google searches they were capable of, for finding me. However, if my legal name hadn't been changed, I couldn't use G+ and feel safe. I can't be the only one that has issues with putting their legal name out there.

For the first time ever I used my real name on G+. I have avoided my real name on the internet because I have some blood relations that could and would cause me serious harm if they could find me. Why did I suddenly reverse my entire internet habit? I just changed my name legally. Since they are not tech savvy beyond the basics of Google searches, I feel that being a half a continent away, and using a fully different name will protect me. Not everyone wants to change their legal name, though.

When I played counterstrike, we ran a server, so I felt cool playing there. I've moved to the more general xbox games in the last five years or so, and you can't really enforce behaving like a human being on there. Every once in a while I'll play with my friends, but I think it's just weird to only feel comfortable if I'm playing with friends because I know they won't start making homophobic, racist, or sexist (especially rape orientated) comments. For me, it's just not worth it much. I spend more time on minecraft anyways these days, and being able to control a server allows for more nice behavior, but I then again minecrafters don't seem to have that cultural bent anyways. I'm better off. I honestly wouldn't mind if it was just more evened out, genderwise with both genders all sexed up. Hell, if I could just play a female character that looked older than 18, and wore real clothes every once in a while, I'd consider it a win. That is more of an age misperception, though, where game designers think all of us gamers are teens. You'd think they would want to focus on us old coots. We have money to burn on games.

I've worked with these on a smaller scale. The version that looks like a watch for small scale dementia/mental health/alzheimer's locked units. They work great, until you find the watch attacked to the cat's collar, on a different patient, or behind the toilet.

For perspective, I'm a 40 year old female gamer. I like fps games on solo. I HATE playing online with the community for any reason. That part is the community. I can't use a mic because I sound young enough that I get propositioned by folks young enough to be my son. Just. . . Eww. Don't even get me started on the insults. Even if they are not directed at me, I just don't want to hear homophobic, racial, or gender slurs every two minutes. The prevalence of rape humor and insults makes me really uncomfortable. Therefore, I don't play online with my xbox on fps.

As for the games themselves? Can I even play a female character? Can she have generally reasonable clothing? Not stripper wear? Is there parts of the game where all the present female characters are there to kill, screw, or serve as eye candy? Is there male eye candy? Are females represented in the game as anything other than victims?

I don't think any of this is rocket science.

I have Graves Disease. I get nausea a lot. I have meds that suppress the disease, and the side effects are more nausea. Surprise!

On a good day, with little amounts of 3D, I'm fine. One a bad day, I can't even watch my Netflix queue on my xbox queue scroll sideways. I hate it when the only version of a movie that is available is in 3D. These days I'll wait until I can find a regular version, or not watch it.

I won't even attempt the Nintendo 3DS.

Great. It's more efficient. Now they can charge even more, and your insurance won't cover it because it's experimental, but even if they do, you'll only get one hearing aid ever decade because your insurance deems that acceptable.

Sign me up as another voice that watched it, but would never spend money on it. My DL of it would never translate into a sale.

Not because I don't spend money on porn. More because if I am going to put my cash into a porn film, which I have many times, it has to be more female friendly in the sex scenes. Don't get me wrong, the Batman XXX film is great in all the costuming, and details, they put in to mirror the old series. I was a happy at all details put in.

However, being female, I really try to put my cash towards porn that acknowledges females get off, and are not just props that fake orgasms for the male actors in the film. That means, I would have never paid for this film. The movies that do achieve that get my cash. Even if I don't think they will be watched more than once because I want to support an industry that does things that way.

This means my download would not have been a sale. This also means I would never have paid for it at all, unless I got to see another owners copy for free. It's far easier to assume a porn film will not fit my standards than to put money towards endeavors that don't.

So much this! I hate boss battles. I hate getting locked into some dungeon scenario when I am working on something else. I'm nearing 40. I don't care about the boss battle. I have only a couple hours to play before life calls, and yanks me back. I never think it's fun to do boss fights several times in a row.

I am not sure liability is the sole issue, though.

That is a problem, but it seems that the word "medical" causes the cost to raise to ridiculous levels. I would routinely buy velcro for keeping wheelchair cushions from sliding from a wholesale craft site. The exact same product cost 5x as much from the medical catalogs at the facility where I was the head nurse. We managed to velcro everyone's wheelchair cushions (facility of about 43, most in wheelchairs) for the same cost as one.

I agree liability is an issue, but that only goes so far when the same wingnuts and bolts cost ridiculous amounts more just because they are "medical".

Have they addressed how accessible they plan these elegs to be? After a decade of fighting for basic prosthetics for patients, as a nurse, I have this horrible cynical vision. I worry that the insurance companies will call it all experimental, like the higher end prosthetics, and refuse to cover it at all, and slapping the word "medical" on the device will raise the price out of reach, even when the technology is more mass produced, and cheaper. Leading to it being totally out of reach financially for a lot of folks that would need it.

I've had that argument about wheelchairs, walkers, you name it. Hell, I even had to argue that dialysis was NOT an elective treatment to the phone zombie. Although, to the insurance companies credit, despite cutting off coverage for dialysis, I had it fixed in an hour+ when I finally clawed my way to a supervisor.

I'm talking about US healthcare practices. I don't have any experience with anywhere else.

I got one this week for my college classes. I am not short on money, but I do have a near 2 mile walk from the inter-city bus stop to campus. That means I'd prefer to buy an expensive toy and load my textbooks, which all require online access now anyways, on the tiny device, than carry my biz law, and accounting books.

So far, I use pen and paper to take notes, but have had no problems using the device to look up pages in my textbooks, or even take online quizzes. It also entertains me in my downtime between classes. For me, it works well.

I just finished up changing my name last week in court. My estranged family have a stalking problem, which combined with the fact that I can't erase who I am on the internet created a situation where it was impossible to get away from an emotionally abusive situation. It was just far easier to just change my name so that they could not accidentally google me up.

It wasn't that I was leaving my name on the internet, but my school had an instructor that used a forum that was required for a class, with our real names. An employer had some photos online with employee names. As head nurse, I was named. I had acquaintances that called me by name on things like Livejournal.

It was just far easier to change my name to something they don't know. That way even if other things in my life use my name, a casual google search won't show anything useful. Luckily for me, my stalkers only know how to use "the google" and not anything more useful. It's the perfect time, too. I changed schools recently, moved to another state, and have so few ties to the old town I lived in, that I feel reasonably safe now. The internet just doesn't forget, so it's easier to just change your name.