Words... what do they all mean?

I've participated in the National Consumer Panel since January 2014, which involved scanning my grocery purchases and doing the occasional survey in exchange for gifts cards and such. Unfortunately, I've finally had to break down and delete my account due to their continued transphobia.

When participating, you have the list the demographic information of the shopper, and the only gender options listed are Male or Female. Which, you know, is an issue if you're legally nonbinary. Especially since X is a valid gender option on US passports as well as driver's licenses in many states. In addition, they have an annual demographic survey each year where you provide more information about yourself, and - once again - the only gender options are Male or Female. If you want to participate, you have to intentionally misgender yourself, or you cannot proceed forward through the survey.

I've been reaching out to the National Consumer Panel about this issue since 2021. In both 2021 and 2022, my messages were acknowledged, and they point-blank stated that the issue was that their parent companies (NielsenIQ and Circana) dictated what gender options they were allowed to list.

In December 2022, I received the following email:



That email? Was the last communication that I received from NCP one way or another. I've continued to reach out each year when the annual demographic survey goes out with only Male and Female as the gender options listed, but I haven't received any response from NCP at all since 2022.

It's very clear at this point that the blatant transphobia of forcing nonbinary individuals to misgender themselves to use their site is intentional and won't be changing. Maybe it is the parent companies that are to blame, but the fact that NCP sent me an email in 2022 saying they were working to fix the issue and then ignored every single message that I've sent since then? Well, that says a lot. If nothing else, they're the ones who chose to simply stay quiet.

At this point, I'm done. I deleted my account earlier today, and I sent them an email making it clear why I've done so. With the current state of the world, I can't in good conscience continue to participate with an organization that's not even pretending to try to not to be transphobic.

I honestly doubt this post is going to do much of anything in the grand scheme of things (and the same's true of the thread that I posted over on Bluesky). Still, I wanted to at least make a public post about it just in case it lets even one person out there know that the National Consumer Panel shouldn't be trusted if you're LGBTIQA+.

In tonight's game, ( the rest under a cut for those who don't care. )

And that's where we left off.

So, yes, I posted my usual summary last night, but the events of the game itself deserve their own post.

( More about the utter chaos of extremely lucky wild magic rolls under the cut. )

Two fandom-related posts in a row? Really? I can't even remember the last time that happened.

Critical Role has its fourth campaign starting in just over two weeks, and they posted the first artwork of the new characters earlier this week. They haven't released any other details like classes and such, but I'm very, very, very curious about several of them. Especially since they posted a video earlier today about character vibes, some of which sound kinda amazing.

The fandom is definitely ramping up again, which is helping with forcing my brain to get through watching as many of the specials that I've missed as I can before CR4 starts. I've missed having a proper weekly fandom, and I really want to try to get back in the habit of napping after work on Thursdays so that I can stay up late watching the new episodes live.

D&D is cancelled tonight so that the DM can drug herself into a stupor and try to get more than 3-4 hours of sleep for once. As for me, I think that I'm going to take a short nap for the next hour or so and then settle in to play video games all night.

I'm leaning towards playing more of that Mass Effect: Andromeda playthrough that I started last weekend, although I may switch over to Baldur's Gate 3 or Dragon Age: The Veilguard for at least a while. We'll just have to see what my brain seems most interested in tonight.

My poor cleric, Siân, has had a really bad couple of weeks in-game. Over the course of the last not even a full two weeks, she has:

- woken up from being held captive by mind-controlling plants for a week
- found herself in a prison camp in the middle of a warzone
- watched a friend die while trying to escape said prison camp
- failed to resurrect said friend
- watched the resurrection fail again when someone else attempted a higher level spell
- found out that her family has been accused of treason and placed under arrest
- found out that a bunch of powerful nobles want to make her father emperor
- saw the instant destruction of an entire town via a weapon of mass destruction
- watched the friend who died come back to life separate from his still-dead corpse
- given up the very last gift her deceased mother ever gave her
- had a bunch of ancient knowledge magically dumped in her head
- had her right arm chopped off
- found out that her father named her his legitimate daughter due to obvious coercion
- had her right arm unexpected regrown by way of alchemy
- almost been killed by malfunctioning golems
- almost watched her entire group be killed by a shadowspawn beholder
- been publicly seen with magic users in an empire where magic is illegal
- been involved in a very bloody battle
- joined a pirate fleet
- found out that the empire-wide newspaper has been smearing her name
- almost been killed by assassins
- found out an assassins' guild with a reputation for never quitting has been hired to kill her
- been involved in another very bloody battle
- found out that she's one of the most wanted people in the entire empire
- almost been killed by lightning
- almost drowned
- died instantly from a magical trap while in a shadow plane surrounded by enemies

Considering the circumstances of her death, I'm honestly not sure what's going to happen. Resurrection may or may not be on the table, especially considering the rest of the group is about to go into a pretty massive bit of combat without a healer.

Next week, I'm planning on basically just being off camera the entire night unless something very unexpected happens. I'll figure out future plans after I see what happens in-game over the next, uh, 60 seconds or so.

They do technically at least have access to an item that will let them cast unlimited Gentle Repose, but said item is on their ship which is currently shrunk and inside a bottle. Plus said item is being used on the dead body of the group member who came back to life by other means and therefore has both a mostly-alive body and a corpse sitting on the ship, so... yeah.

(Don't ask. Trust me.)

Autumn starts in about a week-and-a-half, and the first day of fall is on a Monday this year. Which, you know, kinda bodes well for new beginnings in my mind since it's the first of the work week at least. And, considering how things have been going so far in September, I feel like I really need a set point for a fresh start.

So, you know, Mabon works fairly well for that.

Things have been pretty chaotic in my life the last year or two for a variety of reasons, and I think that I'm going to force myself to set up a strict daily schedule to start following again come September 22. I won't stick to it forever, but I've found in the past that the structure really does help me even if it's just for a month or so to get me back in the habit.

Now I just have to force myself to start thinking about a set schedule that will work for me while still having some flexibility for when things don't go quite as planned...

In tonight's game, ( the rest under a cut for those who don't care. )

And that's where we left off.