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Trans man shares the body language he learned to work with ‘intimidating’ men at steel mill

Leo Macallan is an actor, trans model, author and a confessed keen observer of human behavior. As a transgender man, he is in the unique position of being able to understand gender-based behavior from multiple perspectives.

After transitioning, Macallan worked blue-collar jobs alongside a lot of men who weren’t exactly accepting of transgender people or those who were different. So, he had to learn to adjust his body language and communication style to feel comfortable and project an air of confidence in an aggressive environment.

To share his knowledge with others who may be uncomfortable in male-dominated environments, he created a video where he revealed his body language and communication tips. Macallan also shared how to observe the group of men to determine the hierarchy and how to react to offensive behavior.


Here are his 4 most important tips:

Some advice from papa bear

@thegravelbro

some advice from papa bear #ftm #transgender #fyp #transman #beard

1. Go Slow

“Walking fast, fast hand movements, they just read nervous,” he said. “Even when I do the dumbest things, I do them slow. Say I was at the supermarket and I dropped [a bottle of soda]…I would lean down very, very slowly, very casually, like the laziest lion in the den.”

“It’s all about the presentation and the perception of who you are and what you’re doing,” Macallan added.

2. Body language

“I want you to spread out as much as you can,” he said. “Put your arm across the chair. Any time I’m sitting down and there’s a chair next to me, guess what? I’m pushing the chair out, I’m putting my whole arm over it and I’m leaning back with my chin up and I’m crossing my legs or stretching them out. Don’t do that around girls.”

He says that spreading out is a “powerful stance,” and it will trick your mind into calming down.

3. Control your laughter

“If you’re within a dude and he’s making a joke and you don’t think it’s funny, don’t laugh,” he said. “Just sit there. The art of not filling space also emanates confidence. You don’t have to fill the space. If they say something really offensive or are trying to f*** with you, all you have to say is, ‘What was that? Can you repeat that?’ and say it real loud. Watch them squirm.”

4. Be the observer

“You need to practice being the observer and not the observed,” he said. “The minute you switch that perspective, you can calm down.”

Macallan’s final takeaway is that even though men you’ll find on blue-collar work sites may appear to be in control and know precisely what they’re doing, a lot of it is actually an act. The best part, it’s one that you can learn, too.

“I can’t tell you how many times I stood in that steel mill with a bunch of other dudes around me and they’re all scratching their bellies like confused orangutans, but they’re making a s***ton of money, ” he said. “So, keep that in mind. That helped me face a lot of my fears.”

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Tiny dog kept escaping and ending up on neighbor’s roofs. Watch cameras capture his skill.

Generally speaking, if someone has a dog that they’re trying to keep in the yard, they’ll build a fence. The larger the dog, the larger the fence needed, but since dogs can’t climb and aren’t particularly adept jumpers, dog fences don’t usually need to be taller than a human.

When a dog is tiny, they definitely don’t need to be that high. Unless that dog is Splodge, the teeny, cheeky little doggo who inexplicably kept escaping his owner’s backyard, despite a brick wall as tall as his owner.

Splodge’s owner figured out that he was using certain objects to climb out, so the owner removed them. But the little guy still kept ending up on the neighbor’s roofs somehow, so his owner called in Dr. Chris from Australia’s “Bondi Vet” television show to help him.


Dr. Chris set up cameras all over the backyard so they could see what Splodge was doing to escape. Having such a tiny dog up on rooftops isn’t exactly safe for him and his owner wanted to make sure he wasn’t able to get out onto the busy roads nearby.

It turns out Splodge is a bit of an escape artist. The way he maneuvers his way up the wall really has to be seen to be believed. It’s very impressive.

Once Splodge gets up on top of the fence, he surveys his surroundings with calm confidence. Clearly he’s not actually trying to run away. So Dr. Chris gets an idea.

Watch how Splodge scales the 2-meter wall and how Dr. Chris comes up with a solution that gives everyone what they want, including little Splodge.

Splodge simply wanted to see what was happening in the neighborhood, rather than hearing all kinds of sounds around him and having no idea what they are. Being up high meant security for the little guy. As Dr. Chris said, “Everything he does is with purpose.”

Giving Splodge a way to fulfill his desire to get a birds-eye view without endangering himself or freaking out his owner’s neighbors, was a lovely way to solve the problem.

It’s an approach that can actually be used with children as well—figuring out a safe or less destructive way to let them do what they’re trying to do rather than just telling them no. In parenting, that might mean putting up a big roll of paper on the wall for kids to draw on so they don’t color on the walls themselves or putting a mini-trampoline in a designated spot for them to get their energy out instead of just telling them to stop jumping on the furniture.

Often what appears to be “naughty” behavior has some motivating force behind it that might not be problematic in and of itself. But it can take time, patience and careful observation to figure out what that motivation is, which Dr. Chris and Splodge’s owner demonstrate beautifully here.

Yay for Dr. Chris for figuring out the real desire in Splodge’s heart, and yay for Splodge for getting a safer outlet for his surveillance instincts.

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Dak Prescott On Questions About Mike McCarthy’s Future: ‘In That Case, There Should Be About Me As Well’

dak prescott mike mccarthy
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The Dallas Cowboys came up short in the postseason once again. Despite playing a home game on Sunday afternoon, Dallas ran into some major problems with the high-powered Green Bay Packers offense, as the team’s vaunted defense struggled to get stops while Dak Prescott and the offense could not keep up. As a result, the Packers picked up a 48-32 win to punch their ticket to divisional round.

For a Cowboys team that had legitimate aspirations of rewriting the narrative around their postseason failures, it was a legitimately shocking result, with Jerry Jones summing things up succinctly.

Now, there are big questions surrounding the team’s future, primarily when it comes to head coach Mike McCarthy, who has one year left on his contract. After the game, McCarthy did get one potentially important endorsement, as Prescott responded to a question about McCarthy’s future by turning the camera onto himself.

“He’s been amazing,” Prescott said. “I don’t know how there can be [questions], but I understand the business. In that case, there should be about me as well, honestly. That guy, I’ve had the season that I’ve had because of him, this team has had the success that they’ve had because of him, and I understand it’s about winning the Super Bowl. That’s the standard of the league, and damn sure the standard of this place. So, I get it, but add me to the list in that case.”

Prescott did have the best season of his career this year and was in the MVP conversation for much of the season, but before he was able to pad his stats a bit at the end of the game, he struggled against the Packers defense. On the day, Prescott went 41-for-60 for 403 yards with three touchdowns and two interceptions.

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Mike Brown Went Ballistic On A Ref And Had To Get Pulled Away By Malik Monk As He Got Ejected

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NBC Sports California

The Sacramento Kings traveled to Milwaukee on Sunday night for a game against the Bucks, and while it was a competitive game, it was one that Milwaukee seemingly had control over in the early fourth quarter.

However, fireworks started in with just under 10 minutes to play after a Kings turnover, when Mike Brown put on a show to earn an ejection.

After a no-call on what the Kings thought was a foul by Cameron Payne on De’Aaron Fox led to a turnover, Mike Brown absolutely lost it, going chest-to-chest with the official and needed to be pulled away by Malik Monk and Trey Lyles, with Monk having to walk him all the way to the corner of the court to go to the locker room for his well-earned ejection.

Brown was smart enough not to actually make contact with the ref, but made it clear he was displeased with the officiating on the evening in Milwaukee, particularly as it pertained to Fox as he had just three free throw attempts deep into the fourth quarter. The league will certainly take a look at Brown’s eruption to see if it will require him to make a donation to the league, but given there was no actual contact he might avoid a fine.

The team did respond to Brown’s tirade, erasing all of Milwaukee’s 12-point lead at the time of the ejection to force overtime.

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Stephen A. Smith Took A Victory Lap On Twitter After The Packers Hammered The Cowboys

stephen a smith cowboys
Dallas Cowboys

The Dallas Cowboys had good reason to think that this was the year they were positioned to make a run in the NFC. But unfortunately for Jerry Jones and co., the team went out of the postseason with a whimper, as the Green Bay Packers jumped on them early on Super Wild Card weekend, never let up, and walked out of Dallas with a 48-32 win.

Because of this, all eyes were on Stephen A. Smith, who has a penchant for taking to Twitter and making fun of the Cowboys after bad things happen to them. Funny enough, Smith decided to have a little fun with how one-sided this game was for a bit, as he posted a video to Twitter during the game where he kept himself from laughing and teased what was coming.

As the game wound down, Smith continued to make everyone think that something was on the horizon.

And then, the full video dropped, and boy, was Smith deep in his bag while making sure to save his absolute best material for Monday’s edition of First Take. If you’ve ever seen him make fun of the Cowboys, you can probably guess which notes he decided to hit, but if you have not seen him do this before, behold a master of his craft at work.

The Cowboys will now enter an offseason full of questions, as this was supposed to be the team that got them over the hump and to the NFC Championship Game at the very least. As for the Packers, they’ll now move on to take on the San Francisco 49ers next weekend.

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Luke Musgrave Was The Most Open Receiver In History On The Packers Dagger Touchdown In Dallas

luke musgrave
NFL

All year the Dallas Cowboys were vastly better at home than on the road, which is why them winning the NFC East felt so important for their playoff chances.

However, it didn’t take long for the Green Bay Packers to make all of that feel moot in Jerry World on Sunday evening, as Jordan Love and Aaron Jones carved up the Dallas defense through the air and on the ground, while Dak Prescott had a nightmare first half with two picks leading to touchdowns (one being a pick-six, the other deep in his own end) as Green Bay opened up a 27-0 lead.

The Cowboys would find some offensive footing late in the first half and then continued that in the third quarter, but the Dallas defense got tortured by Matt LaFleur, as the Packers had receivers running wide open all game. Romeo Doubs was pretty regularly uncovered deep down the field, as he racked up 148 yards on his first five catches, with none of them being contested grabs.

However, LaFleur’s masterpiece came with the Packers up 34-16, hunting for the dagger in the late third quarter were running the ball with ease when they decided to run a filthy leak play, bringing tight end Luke Musgrave across the formation before turning up field without a Cowboys defender in sight. Despite it being one of Love’s worst passes of the game, hanging up in the air for seemingly ever, Musgrave had time to field it like a fair catch and then turn and run into the end zone for the dagger.

Just in case that wasn’t enough, the Packers marched down the field on their next drive as Love threw a filthy fourth down TD to Doubs to push their point total to 48 on the game and put a bow on one of the most impressive performances in the Wild Card round we’ve seen in some time by a road team.

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Justin Bieber’s Drew House, NHL, & Adidas Joined Creative Forces For The New 2024 All-Star Jersey Collection Collaboration

Justin Bieber 2022 Coachella
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With rumors circulating that he could make an appearance during the 2024 Super Bowl Halftime Show and Coachella, it is clear that fans are desperate for new music from Justin Bieber. But supporters will have to hold out a bit longer because the “Baby” singer has a few other creative projects to finish.

On January 13, Bieber’s fashion label, Drew House, announced their latest collaboration with Adidas and the National Hockey League (NHL). In a series of vibrant photographs captured by Tyrell Hampton, the companies unveiled the new designs for the 2024 All-Star Game jersey collection. Blending Bieber’s love for streetwear and the NHL’s traditional garment structuring, the parties found a way to incorporate each element. There are four colorway options (blue, red, yellow, and white) in both men’s and women’s sizing.

This isn’t the first time Bieber creatively joined forces with the NHL. In 2022, Bieber revealed his curated collection with the Toronto Maple Leafs starring The Kid LaRoi. NHL’s Chief Brand Officer and Senior Executive Vice President Brian Jennings acknowledged that in a statement about their latest venture.

“After the tremendous success of our first NHL, Adidas, and Drew House collaboration for the Toronto Maple Leafs’ Next Gen jerseys, we looked forward to another opportunity to bring a bold, fashion-forward look to NHL jerseys,” he said. “The All-Star Weekend in Toronto is the perfect setting for a fresh perspective on the All-Star jersey. The vibrant colors in this year’s All-Star collection are both youthful and classic and offer the perfect complement to the young NHL talent set to meet in Toronto for this year’s NHL All-Star Weekend.”

The 2024 NHL All-Star Game is set to take place on February 3 at Ontario’s Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, Canada.

The Drew House x Adidas jerseys for NNHL’s2024 All-Star Game retail between$100 and $190. All items can be purchased on both Adidas and the official NHL website. Find more information here.

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George Lucas Almost Didn’t Do The ‘Star Wars’ Special Editions Until He Got A ‘Truck’ Of Fan Letters

Darth Vader Star Wars A New Hope
Lucasfilm

You know what’s fun? There’s now more time between when the Star Wars “Special Editions” came out than between them and the original films. The newfangled, CGI-graffitied versions of the original trilogy hit theaters in the spring of 1997, and they’re now the main versions people can watch. (Although the one on Disney+ is where you can see the curious “Maclunkey” addition.) Thing is, they almost didn’t happen.

/Film spoke with producer and longtime George Lucas collaborator Rick MacCallum, who shed some light on how those “Special Editions” came to be. Turns out, Lucas was reluctant to reissue that trio for the first one’s 20th anniversary. Some speculated that he did it to get cash to make the prequels. Others more cynically speculated that it was just to get more money. But according to MacCallum, it was super-fandom that pushed him over the edge.

“The driving force behind it at that particular time was a wonderful guy who ran the marketing division of Fox named Tom Sherak,” McCallum recalled. A “total Star Wars freak,” Sherak had been “bugging George for years” to re-release those films in theaters.

But one day, Sherak showed up at Lucasfilm with an actual truck filled with “literally hundreds of thousands of letters from parents saying, ‘Please can you re-release the film? I want my son and daughter to see and experience what I experienced as a young person in the cinema.’”

That, MacCallum remembered, “was just too overwhelming to say no.”

Of course, Lucas didn’t just dump the trilogy back in theaters as-is. MacCallum recalled:

“I’ll never forget, George had shown me his notebook… He used to write out of this high school notebook with a No. 2 unleaded pencil, and he had the original script of ‘Star Wars.’ And to the side were all the notes of the things that he couldn’t achieve.

There were issues and things that he didn’t like, that they didn’t have the money to do, and things he would love to do if he ever had the chance to go back and revisit the films. And that became kind of the benchmark of, “Okay, these are all the things that he saw in his mind’s eye. This is the film that he wanted it to be, but he didn’t have the money or the resources at the time or the technology to be able to do it.”

And suddenly, Fox gave us that opportunity.”

The rest is controversial history. Many, especially original Star Wars heads, have complained that the late ‘90s CGI ruined the original trio, and they really don’t like that those, with things like Han Solo awkwardly shooting second, are the ones you stream on Disney+. (Lucas has made the original versions available in some releases, though. Then there’s those “despecialized” editions.) On the other hand, Lucas has spent so much of his life, his reputation, and his own money lovingly restoring tons and tons of classic and experimental cinema. One could argue that more than atones for arguably screwing up his own work.

(Via /Film)

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George Lucas Almost Didn’t Do The ‘Star Wars’ Special Editions Until He Got A ‘Truck’ Of Fan Letters

Darth Vader Star Wars A New Hope
Lucasfilm

You know what’s fun? There’s now more time between when the Star Wars “Special Editions” came out than between them and the original films. The newfangled, CGI-graffitied versions of the original trilogy hit theaters in the spring of 1997, and they’re now the main versions people can watch. (Although the one on Disney+ is where you can see the curious “Maclunkey” addition.) Thing is, they almost didn’t happen.

/Film spoke with producer and longtime George Lucas collaborator Rick MacCallum, who shed some light on how those “Special Editions” came to be. Turns out, Lucas was reluctant to reissue that trio for the first one’s 20th anniversary. Some speculated that he did it to get cash to make the prequels. Others more cynically speculated that it was just to get more money. But according to MacCallum, it was super-fandom that pushed him over the edge.

“The driving force behind it at that particular time was a wonderful guy who ran the marketing division of Fox named Tom Sherak,” McCallum recalled. A “total Star Wars freak,” Sherak had been “bugging George for years” to re-release those films in theaters.

But one day, Sherak showed up at Lucasfilm with an actual truck filled with “literally hundreds of thousands of letters from parents saying, ‘Please can you re-release the film? I want my son and daughter to see and experience what I experienced as a young person in the cinema.’”

That, MacCallum remembered, “was just too overwhelming to say no.”

Of course, Lucas didn’t just dump the trilogy back in theaters as-is. MacCallum recalled:

“I’ll never forget, George had shown me his notebook… He used to write out of this high school notebook with a No. 2 unleaded pencil, and he had the original script of ‘Star Wars.’ And to the side were all the notes of the things that he couldn’t achieve.

There were issues and things that he didn’t like, that they didn’t have the money to do, and things he would love to do if he ever had the chance to go back and revisit the films. And that became kind of the benchmark of, “Okay, these are all the things that he saw in his mind’s eye. This is the film that he wanted it to be, but he didn’t have the money or the resources at the time or the technology to be able to do it.”

And suddenly, Fox gave us that opportunity.”

The rest is controversial history. Many, especially original Star Wars heads, have complained that the late ‘90s CGI ruined the original trio, and they really don’t like that those, with things like Han Solo awkwardly shooting second, are the ones you stream on Disney+. (Lucas has made the original versions available in some releases, though. Then there’s those “despecialized” editions.) On the other hand, Lucas has spent so much of his life, his reputation, and his own money lovingly restoring tons and tons of classic and experimental cinema. One could argue that more than atones for arguably screwing up his own work.

(Via /Film)

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Doja Cat Seemed To Tease That A ‘Scarlet’ Deluxe Album Could Be Released Soon With A Working Tracklist

Doja Cat 2023 TIME100 Gala
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This week, rap fans have showered Doja Cat with praise following her guest verses on tracks “Jeezu” and “N.H.I.E.” Even Jay-Z weighed in on Doja Cat’s artistry, giving his stamp of approval regarding her lyrical abilities. Following the unexpected wave of support, Doja Cat took to her official Instagram page to hint that she has plenty more intricate bars to dish out.

On January 13, in an Instagram Story upload, Doja Cat teased that the deluxe edition of her Scarlet album could be released soon. The photograph posted on her page was of a whiteboard outlining a working playlist for the project. Fans better brace themselves if this is a taste of what’s to come.

Instead of adding one or two new songs, it seems as if the forthcoming project would feature seven new records (“Acknowledge Me,” “Head High,” “Gang,” “Masc,” “Rider,” Urrrge,” and “Hungry”).

Doja Cat Scarlet 2 Instagram Story tracklist
Instagram

One fan online pointed out that Doja Cat still has other leftover tracks that could easily be considered for the album. “Just please let ‘Shots’ & ‘Whip’ be added too,” they wrote.

Rather than adhering to the traditional deluxe album format, with seven new records and two older options up for grabs, Doja Cat can craft an entirely new body of work, taking a page out of SZA’s playbook. But Doja Cat supporters will want to take this teaser with a grain of salt, especially considering how many revisions Scarlet underwent before it was shared with the world.