#I don't agree with the way I used to be on facebook either

[beggars-opera]

Hey, can we move our advice about kids on the internet into the 21st century please?

I 100% agree that we should all be as private as humanly possible online, but I also know that I do not follow my own advice, nor does anyone else, including you, probably. Yes, many of us were raised in a time in which the internet could be completely anonymous, but that was in the era before social media. Facebook, Instagram, etc. started as tools to interact with people already in your social circle, which is why personal information is used on them, but they've evolved since then for better or worse, and we need to acknowledge that. Simply telling teenagers that they have to operate under an avatar at all times like we're on a 2002 message board and that they are brainwashed idiots if they don't isn't helping anyone.

If I was giving someone real life advice, it would be this:

If you are a minor, know that there are predators out there who are more than willing to interact with you, so honestly, sincerely, do consider being as anonymous as possible. That means not using your full, or even your real name (this is the perfect time to use the name you always wished you had, mine was Morgan after Morgan le Fay), and putting things on private as much as possible so only people you know, or those you can vet, can interact with you.

If you do choose to show your face, know that this comes with risk and buffering that with other things (like using a pseudonym or never tagging your exact location). This can go a long way to protecting yourself. If you're just posting aesthetic images, sure, make your IG public, but if you're documenting your every move maybe stick with friends only for now.

Even if you are not a minor, creeps will still find you. Again, assumption of risk. Either way, though, the block feature is your friend.

If you're being open online because you're really dead set on being an influencer, know that is going to come with a whole world of pain all its own assuming it actually pans out, so it's probably not worth it. Also you probably won't make it as an influencer, hon, I'm so sorry but statistically it's true.

If you're posting certain things traceable to you this could also bite you later at work, or for prospective employers.

When interacting with strangers online, always assume that people are hiding SOMETHING. That isn't always a malicious thing - they could also be protecting themselves! But don't take everything they say at face value. Online personas are always acting of a sort.

If you find yourself becoming friendly enough with someone that you want to meet them in person, take stock of how much you know about them. Do they post photos of themselves frequently enough that you can tell they are who they say they are? Are they willing to video chat with you before meeting irl? Are they willing to meet with you in a neutral, public location or with a group of friends, or do they act sketchy about that?

To the above point, meet people for the first time in a neutral, public location, preferably with a group of friends, just in case. Look, I've broken this rule myself and even though nothing happened, I still kick myself for it.

Trust your gut. You are the creator and the curator of your own online existence, so do what makes you feel safe.

[plaguevampyr]

Elliott headcannons (some of these I gather from people but there's side notes who it's from)

I definitely do not have an obsession with this man.

Elliott used a smoking pipe before. He doesn't know how to use it by the way that he start coughing. (Bonus from @majokothesmol: "He doesn't use it to smoke. It's a bubble blower." Then @/3-and-a-half-possums-in-a-hat added "plotwist, he inhaled the bubbles")

He doesn't know how to maintain eye contact. That's why he's facing side ways and he looked confidence (or arrogant as you might say it) just to hide the fact he can't make eye contact.

He came from a wealthy family and his parents hates him because he wants to he a writer instead of a lawyer or something. Probably an only child, if not, his sibling is either decades away from his age and probably his parents favorite, sorry Elliott you don't have parent favoritism. (younger or older)

Theatre kid, that's it. You can't tell me that's not a theatre kid. He probably played Goston for the Beauty and the Beast musical in highschool and I don't know why.

Someone said he's a werewolf and it's the funniest thing I've read. (I can't rell you who because I found it on Facebook and it was their personal account...)

When he's folding origami, he folds it neatly and perfectly aligned.

Willy invites him for meal sometimes if he's cooking at home. Don't starve Elliott, you're too glamorous.

Broke ass. (We all agreed on this and it's because he spent most of his money on hair care products. Or some good quality papers.)

Wait, have you guys ever realized that this man has OCs? THIS GUY LITERALLY HAVE OCS? OF COURSE HE HAVE OCS, HE'S A WRITER...

[powdermelonkeg]

Something websites (*cough* Tumblr *cough*) need to learn is that what retains an audience isn't an abundance of new bells and whistles to play with, it's a coherent experience overall.

When someone joins a website, you don't need to grab their attention and hold it. They're already testing the waters. They've agreed to sign up. You've won on that front, and they're there for something specific you already have that they're hoping works well.

What drives them away is frustration.

Frustration, frustration, frustration.

Learning curves are going to be a part of any new website experience; they're something the user comes to terms with, in their own time. But broken or bad features are going to make them jump sites.

On top of that, constantly adding new features makes them feel like all the hard work they've put in to learning what you have isn't worth it; your website looks unstable and your staff looks incompetent, because it gives the impression that you don't know what you're doing.

You are floundering. It makes your new users nervous. It makes your old users hesitate to bring anyone else on board. And why should they? Why should they put effort into it if you're going to throw that effort away next Tuesday? Why get used to a UI that you're not going to bother to keep? Why customize anything if you're going to whittle that customization away?

Between that and the broken, unattended features of this site—the tag organization failing, the inability to look up posts word-for-word, the video player either refusing to play or yanking you to the top of the dashboard, images taking forever to load, advertisements blaring at full volume when you scroll past, you have your problem.

You have the reason why your numbers are failing.

It's not that you're not interesting enough.

It's not that you're too difficult to understand.

It's that you aren't improving what you have, yet you keep adding more half-broken things and unwanted copycat features to the pile.

It's that you're losing your identity in pursuit of a hypothetical perfect customer.

It's that you are actively telling your user base that you prefer those hypothetical customers over them. And your user base, your real people who make you happen, are smart enough to know where your priorities lie.

The bulk of this post talks about Tumblr, but other sites have gone the same way. Twitter is dead and its corpse is decaying in the street. Reddit has sabotaged any trust its users had in its management. If you'd like a really old example—I used to use Fanfiction Net. It's not the most intuitive website in the world, but it was the first one I called home.

I used it to host my works. The adware now on it makes it a hassle to navigate. The bots make comment sections and private messages a dread rather than a joy. So I moved on.

I also used to use it to collaborate on stories with my now-roommate. The message limit was 300 a day. When you're writing dialogue between characters, that's nothing.

So I moved on. We started messaging on Facebook. It was better, it didn't have a limit. But then I learned Discord existed, and I could edit messages, make dedicated channels, etc. So I moved on from Facebook to Discord. And Discord had a steep learning curve, especially if you're trying to make your own server rather than contribute to one. But, most importantly, the payoff was worth it.

If Discord changed its layout every other month while I was learning it, and broke how its reactions worked, and kept shifting what it meant to create a channel? If it opted me into servers I didn't sign up for, in hopes of engagement? If its text never formatted correctly, or its search function only went back a day or two?

I would have gone right back to Facebook. Even if it's a more basic experience, basic is always preferable to unstable.

Figure out what you want, websites.

Slow growth, or a gamble?

You're paying for your magic slot machine in users.

[eisforeidolon]

Question: I know each of you have had programs that are going now, and some that did not make it - and that is complete B.S., by the way. [Audience cheers, Jared mouths thank you] Are there any other projects that are coming up that you can discuss? 'Cause we all know we see on Facebook and things that season 16, they've agreed, they've agreed, and like, okay we all wish that was true, but what can you tell us about future projects?

Jared [pointing at Jeff]: Well, he's set to direct season 16 of Supernatural.

Jeff: [nods] In a heartbeat.

Jared: I - what do I aggressively have going? I have a few things that we're working on developing, but I think aggressively I'm leaving tomorrow for Fire Country and [audience cheers, JDM and Jensen clap] It'll be - you know, I'm just doing a couple episodes, it's not like I'm joining the cast forever, it's a couple episodes, go see our buddy Max, and see some of the friends and family from Supernatural that I haven't seen in four years? So I can't wait to go play in their sandbox. I guess, I guess - I haven't talked to Kripke in a month but he said he was writing something for me, so we'll see if I can go hang out on The Boys.

Jeff: Are you working out? Are you getting ready?

Jared: I'm not.

Jensen: Are you doin' the squats?

Jared: No, I'm not.

Jensen: Are you repping 405?

Jared: No, I'm not.

Jensen: She is [referring to a previous questioner who asked about weightlifting].

Jared: I know. [points to that fan] Body double, just borrow her fan [points to other previous fan with prop] do the leg lifts, and then you're my double. You just got hired. But yeah, aggressively I'm kinda just living it day by day.

Jensen: I don't have much to talk about.

Jared: How much time do you have?

Jensen: I'll try to drum up some work for ya. So it's - no, you know everything that's happening with me so my world is about to change here in about two weeks.

Jeff: Do you start in two weeks?

Jensen: Yeah.

Jeff: Holy smokes.

Audience member(s): Which one?

Jensen: I don't remember which one.

Jeff: The one on Amazon.

Jensen: [cracks up] Countdown starts September. And then we're off to the races, because I think there's gonna be overlapping with The Boys and then there's gonna be overlapping with Vought Rising and then there's and then it's all gonna start again. So it's gonna be pretty cyc-[draws circles in the air], it's gonna be that way for a while. I don't know what the light at the end of the tunnel is.

Jeff: It's, you'd be surprised -

Audience member: You're gonna break Amazon again, right?

Jensen: Either that or Amazon's gonna break me. I know one of the two are gonna happen.

Jeff: I've got my money on Amazon.

Jensen: You have insider information. Uh, what about you, anything [?]?

Jeff: I start something in September that I can't talk about. I don't know how it is with new projects, that we never can talk about, it's ridiculous.

Jensen: And then we do them and then we still can't talk about them.

Jeff: Yeah, yeah. So that and then - did anybody see a movie I did, it was on Netflix, and it did really well, called Postcard Killings? I'm gonna go in October and do the sequel to that, based on a James Patterson thing.

Jared: Email killings? What comes after postcard killings?

Jeff: Oh, I see what you did there. Email killings. Only I can't find the killer because I'm really technology [gestures wildly around his head] - like I can't figure it out.

Jensen: The files are in the computer!

Jeff: There's not a [?]!

[genericpuff]

What the actual fuck are they thinking-

Okay, the caption might seem overblown but... this is not good.

The main LO subreddit has been closed for weeks now. It closed due to the API protests but considering the options in the community poll were to either "stay open indefinitely" or "stay closed until the decision is reversed", there's a tinfoil hat theory going around that the single mod that overlooks that place saw the API protests as an "easy way out", especially considering how hands-off those mods are. By the time the main sub decided to take part in the protests (after the height of the protests were over) it had already been stated by u/spez that they were not going to reverse the decision. Essentially, the LO subreddit is done.

Do you know what's been happening since it closed? Activity in ULO has been skyrocketing, but we've also been seeing a lot more discourse from people who have been forced to stomach the ULO content after having their main community shuttered.

Listen, I've got a lot of issues with the main sub and the things they've done over the past year. There are definitely some really shitty folks in there who have ruined things for those who are just casual readers by just being way too protective of this comic. But that doesn't mean the main sub shouldn't exist. The main sub, as dead as it was by the time it closed, was still an option for people who didn't want blind praise or relentless criticism/shitposting. Though there were people who tried to gatekeep the shit out of the main sub (attempting to make it a "positive vibes only" space) the main sub was never explicitly designed for only praise, and by the time it closed, it was seeing a lot more balance between praise and criticism (to no one's surprise, because criticism has become a lot more mainstream in the LO fandom, simply due to the comic's undeniably tanking). All that said, it made for a nice middle ground. Even I enjoyed going in there and reading people's takes on new episodes every week, whether or not I agreed with them. ULO was not designed to be the only route for discussion concerning LO, it's very specifically run for one specific purpose and that purpose will not line up with those who are now without a space.

Without the main sub, there are people with nowhere to go. Some people casually grin and bear it through ULO, others have gone to /r/LowSodiumLoreOlympus, but considering how dead that sub is also, it's clear the popular opinion is swaying more towards criticism. I can't imagine what it's like to be a community refugee right now.

So what does that leave for those who don't want to use ULO? The Facebook groups, and the Discord. The Facebook groups are probably the most accessible communities - not everyone uses reddit, not everyone knows how to use Discord, but everyone uses Facebook.

So the fact that the Facebook groups aren't going on a small break, but are going on their own 4 month hiatus?

Not only does this further reduce the options for fandom interaction, but this is terrible for the comic. Hiatuses like this can kill long-term retention, and fandom communities are often the best way to keep that retention on some form of life support.

Think of it this way - if I didn't have the ULO community, I probably would have dropped off LO ages ago, cut my losses, moved on. But it's the fact that I have a community to keep in touch with and have fun with that keeps me on this series. This goes the other way as well, into the casual and praise communities - while I'm sure many will still eagerly return in October, for those who are more casual readers, Lore Olympus will essentially be out of sight, out of mind. And that is NOT something you want to happen to a comic that is already losing traction.

I genuinely do not know what Rachel is thinking closing these groups. And yes, I am pointing to Rachel on this decision because she literally runs the official LO Facebook groups. LO going on a mid-season hiatus over the summer when HALF OF HER DEMOGRAPHIC IS HOME FROM SCHOOL is already such a huge risk that will likely kill her numbers; but to go and cut off her official groups from being able to stay connected and talking about the comic during the hiatus, on a platform OCCUPIED BY THE OTHER HALF OF HER DEMOGRAPHIC, LITERALLY ADULT WOMEN ?? What is that supposed to achieve? If she wants to give her mods a break, sure, okay, do that for a few weeks, but four months? Is she so allergic to fans being able to theorize or "figure her out" (because god knows Rachel doesn't like being predictable) or, god forbid, is she worried about giving them too much "freedom" to reflect and discuss the comic during this time without the weekly dopamine distraction hits that they actually stop and realize how shitty the comic is right now?

All I can say is, as much as we're theorizing that LO is going to be getting a 4th season, I really do hope this midseason hiatus is its last. Whatever life this comic has left is being choked out by Rachel and Webtoons' own hands.

And when it does go out, it better go out with a bang. That's the least it can do for itself and its community at this point.

[lovemyromance]

What stands out to me about that old facebook post "confirming elu///cien" is that SJM says "Elain was somebody I and Lucien didn't see coming". It's like Lucien is the MC and she is thinking about elu///cien with his perspective in mind (you know, like all elu//cien shippers do). I do wonder if she really paired them up initially based on vibes and aesthetics but at that moment didn't delve into their relationship too deeply (with Feysand and Nessian being her priority at that time). At that point Lucien was probably more of a character to her (with Elain being on the background of 2 books) and she thought Elain would suit him well. But then the more she worked on ACOWAR and the more she understood what kind of character was Elain, she found out that Elain just would not ease up to Lucien (with him being complicit in her trauma) but had natural chemistry with Azriel instead. Basically, that's my theory that SJM paired them up based on what she thought would be good for Lucien but then, when she started writing more of Elain, found out that it just doesn't work out from her perspective at all.

I agree. I fully believe she wasn't even planning for Elain & Nesta to have their own stories (given how they were first introduced to us as the "evil stepsisters" trope) when she wrote ACOTAR.

Lucien was one of her main characters, until she wrote the Bat Boys in ACOMAF and decided she wanted to tell their stories first.

SJM has said it herself: she is a pantser, not a plotter. Meaning she doesn't outline or do some crazy mapping flowchart to plot out the entirety of her books. She writes first, then builds the plot around that. Which is why I think she's changed her mind dozens of times throughout the books. Which is why I don't believe in old interviews from before ACOWAR.

She might've originally planned for Lucien & Nesta, then delved further into Nesta's character and realized Nesta would immediately reject any bond she didn't want.

Then she paired Lucien up with Elain, because she wanted him to get his happily ever after - only to realize they don't fit either. But it took her writing ACOWAR, and delving into the characters of Elain & Nesta further to fully understand them. In the first two books, they were simply "Feyre's sisters" but by ACOWAR they were now 3D, real characters. Complex. Unique individuals.

I look at what she has written from ACOWAR onwards, and it's like a completely different story than ACOMAF.

Suddenly Lucien is absent for most of the book.

Nesta has her own big scenes

Elain has her own pivotal moments

Mor + Azriel seems to be no longer a thing

Cassian & Nesta are constantly bickering yet you can tell they care for each other

Azriel goes out of his way to help Elain, be near Elain, protect Elain, rescue Elain.

The entire story seems to shift. Suddenly the focus isn't only Feyre/Rhys. It's all these other characters too.

I think as readers, we can easily see that ACOWAR was the turning point for SJM. We got to know the characters a bit more, and SJM did too in the process of writing them. She began to form that innate writer mentality when one gets comfortable with their characters enough to know that "Oh this character would never say that, they're too polite" or "Hm, this character doesn't seem suited for that one."

That's when things changed for SJM, and I see that clearly reflected in her writing. That was when she scrapped Elucien and began to write Elriel instead.

[sigmaleph]

it kinda sucks cause like. if social media charged every user, the amount i'd have to pay to keep access to tumblr would be pretty small and i'd happily pay it.

but a website that charged every user would put a hurdle in the way of sign-ups, and they'd get less growth, and because the primary reason to use social media is for the other people who are there there's enormous network effects. people don't sign up because it costs money -> people who would pay for it don't sign up because nobody's on it

so you can't even try to do your own thing and ignore the venture-capital funded huge websites, because if you do you'll get six users total and you won't have a social medium, you'll have an unusually expensive group chat.

I don't have an option to pay a reasonable amount of money for whatever it costs tumblr to serve me posts and serve my posts to other people plus some extra profit they can skim on top. i can pay a greater amount of money that doesn't remotely guarantee tumblr keeps working because it depends on whether enough other people do, too. great deal.

i am every day more sympathetic to the fediverse ideal of "we all agree on a communications protocol and then you don't have a single entity paying server costs for millions of people, you can have tiny servers at any scale funded however makes sense to you" but i don't think it'll work either.

i don't even know if venture-capital-funded social media will die or not. it'd be something if it all dies and we need to grapple with a new way of doing things because we collectively agree the old one failed, at least in that case a theoretical sensible business model wouldn't be competing against the existing one, but like. facebook. so.

[ingravinoveritas]

Hello there! I hope you are doing well (as well as someone who has completed watching season 2) First of all congrats on moving into a new house! I'm still having lots of Feelings™ to process after finishing the second season.. oh god the acting, the genuine emotions on the faces of both Michael and David this time around... I'm simultaneously radiating happiness and being utterly destroyed. And the increasing intimacy between them in the interviews is not helping matters either... I think (this has been marinating in my head for a while) one of the reasons they are doing this is to physically reassure each other that they are not apart, they are still a team and still on their side, because after the heart wrenching ending of the season, it would have been very hard for them to come to terms with it, as they had put their whole beings, their whole souls into playing Azi and Crowley, which might have made it difficult to draw a line where the characters ended and they begin... So the touches, their body language became a sort of coping mechanism, something which said 'hey, don't worry, I'm still here.. I have not gone away, we're still together' and this makes me wanna cry again 😭

I hope my word vomit makes an iota of sense (English is not my first language by a long shot, so) and I hope you do find some time to rest and have a warm beverage of your choice while unwinding. Stay safe and blessed!!

Hi there! Thank you so much for the congrats on my move, I truly appreciate it. I've actually had a very rough couple of days, as on top of the move, my Facebook account was hacked earlier this week, and it essentially pushed me over the edge and I was crying for much of Monday and felt like I had a crying "hangover" all day Tuesday.

You do not at all have to apologize for your Ask--your English is very good!--and I'm glad to read your thoughts as I make my way through all the Anons still residing in my inbox. Truly, we are fortunate to have GO 2 and Michael and David to focus on, as well as the abundance of interviews we've gotten after months and months of little to no content.

To start: I absolutely agree with you, re: the intimacy between Michael and David in these interviews. It's been so fascinating to see them get more flirty and touchy-feely with each progressive interview (I know we don't know the order in which they were done, but I imagine the flirting/touching increased as the day went on). And while I can definitely see them doing what you described--reassuring each other, touching and being close as a coping mechanism--my feeling is they already did all that last year, probably right after filming That Scene. (There is actually a gorgeous MS/DT fic on AO3 right now that depicts exactly that, and it's definitely worth reading.)

But in terms of all the intimacy and touching in the more recent interviews (from last month), I think what we're seeing is something else. I think Michael and David are beyond the need for reassurance because they are so comfortable with each other and know they're still together, permanently. There's no more of the uncertainty of parting ways after the promo interviews end--only the promise of seeing each other again as soon as both their lives and schedules allow it.

There have been so many moments of telling body language and touches and expressions, but if I had to pick a favorite (well, a few), one would be them walking arm-in-arm onto The One Show:

And the other would be David leaning so far over and draping his arm around Michael in the Amazon Q&A video:

...And of course (and possibly most notable), Michael and David seemingly unconsciously moving closer to each other in the TV Insider interview:

It's so telling that there is no urgency or desperateness to any of this--only comfort and very much that sense of "on our side" that you mentioned. Walking out arm-in-arm as they did in particular adds to that "us against the world" feeling and the not-so-subtle implication that while they were Michael Sheen and David Tennant on the season one press tour, here, now, they are Michael and David. Inseparable, always intertwined, and having so much more of themselves in the characters of Aziraphale and Crowley than in the first season.

So yes, everything you wrote absolutely did make sense, and I appreciate you writing in to share your thoughts with me. I have a lot more thoughts/analysis about GO season 2 still to share, which I hope to do in response to the numerous Anons still waiting in my inbox. Thanks for writing in! x

[neurodogical]

right obviously you can dislike something for whatever reason you like, but the way you talk about it still has an impact on the world around you? when people limply reference to Homestuck being “problematic” and Andrew being “problematic” it just evokes transphobic whisper campaign. this is how people treat trans girls on this website too, no? how many times have you seen camab trans people be avoided on ��vibes” or “because they said something racist [citation needed]” like is it really necessary for you to contribute to a transphobic rhetoric in your discussion? you can just not like something you don’t have to act like there’s some deep political flaw with homestuck that makes it irreconcilably evil — people literally ONLY do this to camab trans people’s work, it’s nuts.

I understand that this means a lot to you, but my criticism of hussie and her work has nothing to do with their gender. you can criticize something while liking it, too. i agree that people criticize things harder when it's by someone whose TMA though, I've seen that happen. and I'm sorry that it's something that you need to look out for, truly. however, it's really strange to act like homestuck isn't very racist at times, though. do you not remember damara megido's entire existence? how about the manner of speaking of the condensce and other instances of them using aave in weird ass ways? people can grow and change yes, but i don't have to forgive racism and the groups she was racist against are ones im not part of.

I didn't say a thing about racism in my original posts, but somehow you knew to bring it up though... if hussies work spoke to you deeply, well, I'm glad you found something important to you even if it's something I really can't bring myself to like (speaking truthfully, "problematic reasons" aren't even my full reason for disliking it. honest! I was just in online fandom WAY too young, like 11 years old, and was the main moderator of a 15,000+ person homestuck facebook group for years, got taken advantage of by older people, etc.) I won't get further into it, but i don't like being called transphobic for just disliking a piece of media especially when I didn't even state my actual thoughts about it as a piece of literature, I just shared my broad opinion. I don't see how it's transphobic to dislike one piece of media created by a trans person. I never used the words "evil", I think that's unproductive and disingenuous when talking about literature, even if it's something i dislike more than homestuck.

if people take "I should go be transphobic now" out of "i hate homestuck and don't like the author much", that's their issue because they're not truly reading what I'm saying either and they suck. that is to say though, had i known that hussie was nonbinary before this entire thing unfolded, i would not have claimed she wasn't LGBT in my tags of that reblog. i haven't even read DTWOF and therefore don't have thoughts on it, i just had a visceral reaction to homestuck, remembered the hussie i made up in my mind over the course of 2014-2020, and said something rude that I wouldn't now. I'm sorry for how upset I've made you, but I'm allowed to have my own thoughts on a piece of media that's shaped a large part of my life.

[halogalopaghost]

I'm so fucking sick of the world.

Thousands of people die on the other side of the world as countries tear into their neighbors with the jealousy of a toddler who wants their playmates toys. Rip and tear and rend and explode and maim and take take take take take because that was MINE thousands of years ago and I've decided now that I want it.

On this side of the world people starve and die and struggle to pay rent and balk against faceless corporate overlords while the cost of food goes up again and the stores lock your shampoo behind glass so you can't steal it because even if you can't afford that shampoo, you need it as much as the food.

Because if you're unclean you get fired and if you get fired you can't afford food or rent or gas or anything, actually. If you can't afford the shampoo you just forfeit your life but you can't steal it either so fuck you actually.

And why do you have an iPhone anyway, if you can't pay rent? Huh? How come that is? Is it because you need it to access the group chat at work that's on slack WhatsApp discord Facebook instead of in a text message? Is it because you have to stand in front of the locked case at the store to google the ingredients of the less expensive shampoo so you know whether it will break out your scalp? I bet you don't need it for those things anyway and you just want it because you're greedy greedy greedy and you have to have the latest toys even though you can't afford food.

Why can't you pay rent? Pathetic. Get a job. But not a good one! And don't demand benefits. And fill out this application on your phone. Enter your well made one page resume and then input all the information again into these tiny fucking boxes that don't work on your phone. Oh, that's right we forgot to mention you'll need a phone haha, did we forget to mention that until you were two thirds of the way through? Did it take you two hours to complete a job application because you had to manually enter the same information four times? We won't call you back, you're overqualified and we're afraid you'll ask for more money. We know you deserve more so we won't let you even try.

Oh, you're sick? Sorry, hope you feel better soon! But actually we hope you feel better sooner because we need you to come in on Saturday. Yeah actually when we hired you, you agreed to work every Saturday for the rest of your damn life and if you don't come in with COVID this week we might have to fire you. Yeah it does suck but oh well you should have read the fine print! Forget that it would have taken another two hours out of your job search to find that in the paperwork and parse the legalese that we intentionally used to obfuscate because we fucking hate you actually. We don't need you. But come in early tomorrow please? Stay late? Work overtime? We aren't understaffed haha as long as you keep agreeing to work twice as much as your body can handle.

are you still coughing, didn't you ever get over that cold? COVID? Huh? You had COVID? Must have forgotten because I don't fucking care to begin with teehee. Well don't wear a mask because that scares our customers. What? Well they aren't wearing them in hospitals so it must not work that well. The WHO? We don't listen to them anymore it's the CDC now. Who funds the CDC? Don't worry about it. Get back to work. You're like family to us <3

[jadevine]

What's up folks, I have recently gotten back into one of my scripts called "TAKOTSUBO: The story of a superhero."

The story:

-Is heavily deconstructive. "Who gets to be (called) a superhero and who's just (called) a gangster/vigilante? It probably depends on if you're white/Caucasian, and which side of the government you're on."

-Is not completely Filipino-centered, BUT it has a lot of Filipino spirits and the Tagalog deities wandering around, forgotten and often shunned for being dark-skinned and non-Catholic. I initially had them wearing tribal tattoos because I fell into the trap of thinking that ALL Filipinos used to tattoo, so now a lot of the young spirits have modern tattoos because they just REALLY don't want to be seen as Catholic, or "potential converts."

-The general look/theme is "The Wizard of Oz gone apocalypse." The Facebook friend that I asked this about apparently LOVES my concept art and the costumes, so... yay?

One person said that this would be pretty damn expensive to pull off as live theater, especially for a new writer with about three acting friends. My Facebook friend mentioned that it may actually work better as a TV series.

Either way, I do not have the money to pay 50-odd actors and however many crew members to make an urban-fantasy city, a dragon, and get in a shitton of staged gang-fights, and I don't want to ask people to VOLUNTEER to do this for free.

Like, there "passion project" and then there's "safety concerns that would be better solved with money."

Sooooooo while I finish the main script, I am going to revisit all my character designs and possibly relearn how to draw, in case I need to make this an actual comic book. One of my proper artist friends has also offered to draw stuff for me, which is really nice! And also kind of terrifying, because I know how expensive ink and paper or a tablet that simulates ink-and-paper IS.

But one person volunteering to draw is still a lot less expensive than a whole cast and crew. So that's on hold while I finish the script and redraft my character concepts. Here’s an in-progress sketch of Lolo the dragon, one of the new-new-new draft’s characters. (He was technically always going to show up, but since I heavily shifted the first third or so of the script around, he appears much earlier in the latest draft.)

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I imagine Filipino dragons can raise/lower their dorsal fins as needed. In person, Lolo’s mouth looks way too much like a bird beak, but it seemed to even out after I took a photo. Maybe the sketch lines are throwing me off.

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Filipino dragons were often called "buwaya" or the local term for "crocodile." The two creatures were basically interchangeable, and a lot of modern people mistakenly think that we didn't HAVE dragons due to the confusion, so that's why I decided that I didn't want Lolo the dragon to look like a mainland/Chinese dragon.

As for why a dragon is called "Grandpa," that is partly because Lolo is indeed old and grumpy, plus he's an homage to Lolong, the largest confirmed saltwater crocodile. The leader of the crocodile hunt was an older man called Ernesto Goloran Coñate, who was nicknamed Lolong by the others. Ernesto was relentless in searching for an alleged maneater, but unfortunately the strain of looking took its toll on him and he died of a heart attack just a few days before they caught this stonking huge unit, so the others named him "Lolong" after Ernesto's nickname.

I have a lot of feelings about Lolong the crocodile, because there are TWO mythological coincidences here!

-The only thing our ancestors agreed on is how we revered crocodiles, and some ethnicities considered them to be ancestral figures, so we did often call them "grandfather/grandmother."

-Some people believed that a regular crocodile could turn into a dragon through human sacrifice, because they needed a soul. And it apparently had to be a sacrifice; we had rules for if a crocodile just wrecked someone's canoe and ate them--their soul went to the good afterlife, and that was it. A crocodile that received a human sacrifice would often become a clan's ancestor/founder, so with the constant wariness of spirits in Filipino folklore, I imagine people started calling EVERY crocodile "grandfather/grandmother" just in case.

Yes, the part about human sacrifice is going to show up in the script. It makes me think about how Western cultures heavily fear death and how colonizers sensationalized the practices of "savage brown natives" while they were converting us to Catholicism, and how modern Filipinos often fear/hate crocodiles as being greedy or vicious (we usually call dirty cops and politicians "buwaya").

So I'm gonna make that everyone else's problem, too.

[servin-up-surveys]

survey #221

Have you ever hit an animal with your car? No, but in the last year, my mom hit a squirrel for the first time in her life while I was in the passenger's seat. I was fucking devastated, and so was Mom. It was either hit the squirrel or the car in the other lane, and the squirrel was panicking going back and forth so it just stayed in the road longer than if it had just run across.

Favorite ride at the amusement park? I don't go to enough of these to really know. I know I enjoyed the Ferris wheel the last time I went to one.

Do you have many followers on your Tumblr? On my main one I have *checks* 142. It's a rather small community (on Tumblr, anyway, they're one of the biggest international bands in the world) that I post about. On this survey blog, it's 21.

Do you tan easily? Absolutely not, I just burn.

Are you expecting something in the mail? No.

Do you inspire others? I cannot imagine others being inspired by me.

Are you healthy? No, I'm not.

Three things you try to avoid as much as possible: Confrontation, gaining more weight, and situations that give me anxiety.

Number of jeans in your closet: I haven't worn jeans since high school.

Do you follow fashion? Nope.

Do you have a big butt? No, I got that Hank Hill ass & I hate it

Do you count how long you and your gf/bf have been together? I do. I like celebrating anniversaries, so. I don't think time together matters much, but. I keep track anyway.

Rihanna or Lady GaGa? Gagaaaaaa

What's your worst interior design nightmare: Um... probably overcrowding. I've never thought of this. Or just REALLY obnoxious colors.

Are you one of those people that often feel sorry for yourself? Meh, not often. I think it's okay to sometimes, like sometimes you just get a really unfair deck to play and I think it's okay to be upset about it, but I think obsessing over it is a very negative move as far as self-care and acceptance of life goes.

Three persons you would like to thank: My mom, Girt, and the psychiatrist who really helped me get my life back after Jason.

Is your closet disorganized? No.

Do you like to cuddle with your S.O. or do you prefer your space? I am a massive cuddler with him unless I'm hot.

What TV shows do you watch on a regular basis? Literally only Naked and Afraid with my mom. It's our dinner thing if an episode is out, lol. I have no real idea how that became "our show" but it did.

Does it make someone a racist if they’re not attracted to a specific race? "That is not how I understand racism. Attraction can indeed be informed by one's prejudices, but on the flip side, there are plenty of bigots who are also very into the idea of fucking the people they're bigoted towards. Who someone wants to fuck is not at all a reliable litmus test for whether they respect those same people and the cultures they belong to." <<< I fully agree with this.

Are you happy with the size of your bedroom? It does the job for me, sure.

Do you add people you don’t actually know on Facebook? No, you have to be at the bare minimum an acquaintance that actually interests me as an individual.

What’s the longest you’ve liked someone without doing anything about it? Idr.

What’s the relationship status of the last person you talked to? My mom is single.

Think of the person from your past that hurt you the most. Is there anything you would like to say to that person? That I'm sorry for how I acted after we broke up.

Does your mom like the last person you kissed? She loves him.

Are you a forgiving person? I'm too forgiving and I know that for fact.

Who did you last have a heart-to-heart conversation with? Girt, I think.

Do you believe that there’s good in everybody? I don't think so. At least, I think people can become to where there's no longer good in them. I don't think people are born that way or something.

Do you use reusable shopping bags to reduce waste? No, admittedly. Granted, we always get our groceries picked up (employees bring our order to the car), so they're already all in plastic bags.

Where were you going the last time you were a passenger in a car? Girt was bringing me home from his house.

Do your parents have a strong relationship together? Hell fucking no.

When was the last time you attended a religious service of any sort? Many years ago when Colleen was going through an extreme devout Christian phase and I happened to be living with her at the time.

Do you think there are more dimensions than what we’re able to perceive? Meh, I don't think so. I don't completely reject the possibility, though. What do I know, if I can't perceive it?

Do any of your neighbors have loud children? I don't hear them, anyway.

What is the hardest part of your life right now, and what is the easiest? I think the hardest part is not having any sort of employment. I think I make it pretty clear I want to be a self-employed photographer, but that's not easy to achieve, at all. Not having a job plays a massive role in my depression, and for just being insanely fucking bored nearly all the time. Which further feeds my depression, and lately has been causing my anxiety to ramp up, too, because I'm so bored and understimulated that anxiety can just bulldoze its way into focus. Then there's the obvious factor to not having a job: I don't have my own money (I don't receive help from the government), which in our society, feels fuckin' bad. I can't help my mom (who I live with) financially, and she's deep in the fucking hole with money right now. We don't even have a working car right now. If our landlord wasn't who it is, I can assure you we wouldn't have a home right now. I kinda wish for my own sake Mom wouldn't even talk to me about this stuff because I can't fucking help. Uh. For the easiest part of my life... I'm sure SOME people would argue being unemployed, I don't have a lot of responsibility, but it's fucking hell and I promise you there's not a damn thing to envy. I'd rather be DOING shit and supporting myself instead of having to rely on my mommy for everything like a newborn. I guess in MY opinion... it'd be having a house at all? Mom and I hate it here, like a lot, but at least we're not sleeping in the cold or fighting for shelter from the rain. I don't even like talking about this, living on the streets is my biggest fear and it's just more terrifying knowing how easily that could be us. We were already homeless once, but at least we had people to house us. I'm in a bad mood after this question lmfao

If you are struggling with chronic illness right now, what are five of your worst symptoms? Anhedonia, negative self-image and thoughts, general sadness, lack of motivation, and existing in a haze sometimes/feeling like a zombie.

What is your favorite social media platform at the moment? Tumblr. I love the people I associate with there and I feel like it's a much more politically left place (yes I'm full aware not everyone is and dark corners exist) than the shit I see on Facebook and stuff. I USE Facebook more, but it's so easy to get pissed off there at the shit you see. I think Tumblr is definitely better at catering towards your interests and stuff. Like no, Facebook, I had no interest in seeing a proud-as-hell father and his son posing with bloody wolves they'd shot to look as if their corpses were smiling at the camera. (I might be banned from that page <333333)

Do you have trouble forgiving people who hurt you? I've always been too forgiving, but I've definitely gotten better at protecting myself and knowing letting people back in is not always a healthy choice.

What is something that is hard for most people but is easy for you? uh idk

What is something that is easy for most people but is hard for you? The most basic of social interactions. Being open about things I like, if it's not online (like I feel like that's a super exciting topic for most people irl???? meanwhile I wanna throw up).

What is your favorite color, and do you own a lot of things in that color? Pink. Uh... not really, I think.

List three things you have survived. A suicide attempt to be literal, asthma attacks, and homelessness.

When was the last time you had someone pray with you? hell if i know

List five of your favorite female singers. Sharon den Adel, Angela Gossow, Amy Lee, Alissa White-Gluz, and Maria Brink.

When was the last time you got ice cream from an ice cream truck? oh I have zero idea

Do you celebrate the 4th of July, and if so, how did you celebrate it this year? lol no, the U.S.A. can burn for all I care. Mom just made burgers and s'mores so I ate those and that's it.

Who was the last of your friends to have a baby? That I know of, Bethany.

Have you ever been pregnant? No, let's keep it that way.

What color was the last pair of flip-flops you wore? Mine are black.

Are you happy at the moment? Why or why not? No. I just haven't been lately.

What is one thing about your life you hope will never change? I hope I always absolutely adore and aim to educate on and protect animals.

How would you describe your journey so far in your 20s? Shit's sucked. Shit's been a rollercoaster. Shit's been frustrating as hell. Shit's been confusing.

What role does music play in your life, and are there any songs or artists that have had a significant impact on you? I fucking love music. Ozzy Osbourne and Rammstein are the only two I consider having had "significant" impacts on me.

What are some activities or hobbies that bring you joy and help you relax? Creating through writing, photography, or drawing, reading, playing video games, hanging out with my boyfriend, sitting on the porch swing at my sister's house with Mom and watching the kids play, watching a variety of YouTube videos, scrolling the Internet...

What are your thoughts on marriage and starting a family? Is it something you envision for yourself? I want to get married, but I don't want kids. I feel ready to move in together by now, but that's a very unfair thing to want, because then I'd be his financial responsibility instead of only Mom's. We've seriously talked about me and working and Girt really doesn't care if I never do (he's pretty fortunate with his job and he's probably going to keep climbing the ladder there), even though it's anxiety-inducing to him because he worries about what happens to me if he dies or something. But ultimately, he's fine if I'm a stay-at-home wife, which he knows I don't WANT to be and he very much encourages me to keep pursuing photography or art in general, but if that's how it happens, well. My point is though, I should really be patient.

Are there any specific skills or areas of knowledge you would like to develop or improve upon? I would like to become certified to handle venomous snakes, solely for the purpose of relocation if I know someone who needs to get rid of one. I'm very protective of all snakes, but I have a soft spot for venomous species since they're so quickly killed by people, even if they just SUSPECT it's venomous. Or if it's just a snake at all... I've taught myself to be able to identify all my local snakes (although I can't differentiate species of Nerodia, I just know a water snake when I see one), so I can guarantee I'd be able to recognize the venomous species that live in my area, and with certification, I could safely transport them away from where they could be harmed. I wanna point out that I would NEVER handle a venomous species with my bare hands; that ain't my jam. I would never go beyond a snake hook.

How do you navigate and make decisions about your career path and professional growth? lol I am not the person to ask this. I barely know what I'm doing. YouTube channels by self-made artists sharing their experiences save me

[hadenclairee]

"I think you're going to hell but I love and support you"

This is gonna be rambly, mainly because I just wanna get these thoughts out before I finish my coffee, and because I currently don't have a therapist, so you're just getting the raw thoughts:

I simultaneously admire, respect, and feel pity for my mom.

When I first tried to come out, she thought I was telling her that I was gay. She told me, with tears in her eyes as she pulled me in for a deep hug, "I love you, and you know how I believe and that I think you're going to hell, but I love you so much, and will always be here for you"

When I actually came out and told her I was transitioning, I told her that I knew she'd have big feelings about it and I'd give her space to process. Weeks later, when we finally talked about it, she said what I feared most: that she was "grieving" her son. But then she told me that she respected me and wanted to keep her "grieving" to herself and process it without dragging me down, so I gave her space for a little longer.

And she also said she still thought I was going to hell, but that she loved and supported me.

I worried about what "support" meant. She still didn't use my pronouns at the time, but I noticed she'd avoid using any pronouns at all for me, especially around my (very transphobic) dad.

She did, however, give me some things for my hair when I started growing it out, and advice. She did, however, buy me a very lovely (and flattering, feminine-looking) cardigan. She did, however, take me on an impromptu shopping trip one day -- a swing through Walmart to grab some things on the way back from my niece's volleyball game, and a detour to Walmart's makeup section.

She did, several times, acknowledge that I'm "becoming a woman" and refer to my sister and I as "the girls".

When I found out I'd been put on the schedule for a bottom surgery consult with my #1 choice of surgeon, I asked her if she wanted to go NYC with me for the appointment, and also be my caregiver through the process. She said yes. In NYC, now that I'm finally starting to pass, almost everyone we encountered treated us (my mom, my sister, and I) like any other group of women. We got greeted with "Ladies!" more than once. I got to hear my mom use my pronouns and refer to me as her daughter for the first time, and then the entire time we were up there.

But once we were back, the next time I was at their house, as Dad did his usual thing (of only acknowledging me as "son" and rolling his eyes when I refuse to respond to that), Mom went back to either misgendering me or not gendering me. And at the end of the night, as I got ready to go home, she pulled me into a hug and quietly apologized and said she'd try to get it right.

The other day, a transphobic relative messaged me on Facebook with exactly what you'd expect: A rambling message about how I'm going against God's design for my life, and am disappointing both him and my parents, and ending with a note about how they're praying for me. I mentioned it to Mom, and she asked to see the message, and then said "you know, I agree with them, but you are an independent person who can make your own choices. Just know that in my belief system, those choices mean you're going to hell, and I do pray for you every day. But I love you and I'm going to support you no matter what."

As I drove home, she texted me to say that she definitely didn't mean any offense and that she really does love me, and want me to be happy, and that she'd do her best to keep her beliefs regarding me going to hell to herself.

Yesterday, at our extended family's Easter get-together, I showed up dressed and presenting more explicitly femme than ever. Nobody in our extended family (almost all Pentecostal Christians) really made any effort to interact with me. My dad, a Pentecostal preacher who's basically made a point of never talking to me about my transition, but begging relatives to pray for me behind the scenes and constantly vague-posting about the prodigal son on Facebook, was there and blessed the food but didn't speak to me at all.

But my mom? She came right up to me and hugged me and told me she was glad to see me. She said my hair looked lovely. She asked about the dessert I'd brought. When I left, she kissed me on the cheek in front of the other relatives and told me to drive safe and text her when I got home.

And today, I come across a post from Abraham Piper, who talks about how everyone feels bad for kids in fundie families, but nobody really feels bad for the parents. The parents, who are thoroughly convinced that their child is doomed to eternal torment for not sharing their beliefs. The parents, who also believe they'll face eternal torment if they don't continue holding those beliefs. The parents, who are every bit as indoctrinated to those beliefs as I almost was.

And it's just striking to me, that my mom really, sincerely believes I'm going to hell - not even for sin (we've discussed it, and she's not sure if she sees transitioning as a sin) but for not believing in the same things she does. But yet, other than a couple of slips that she's genuinely apologized for, she doesn't try to hang that over me or use it to guilt me. She tries her best to support me in ways that matter to me, even though her husband (again, a fundie preacher) doesn't agree with her and there's starting to be obvious tension between them.

I wonder about her Christianity. I know she was taught the same things I was taught growing up, about the KJV being the word of God, and being wholly and completely literal, and that she was a taught a theology where Hell was central.

I think I should tell her about the journey I'm going through. The last update she ever got on my religious beliefs was in high school, when I pronounced that God wasn't real, and that I was an atheist.

Would it heal her heart to know that I'm now - more than a decade after I left church and Christianity behind - deconstructing the faith I was taught growing up, and falling back in love with Christ and learning how to be a Christian in a wholly different way. Would it help her to know that I have a relationship with Christ that doesn't involve a belief in Hell at all?

Or would she see this as heresy, and dig in further to her taught beliefs?

I don't know. Maybe I could hope for her to be on the way to deconstruction? But it must be so hard for her. And I have to try so hard not to be wounded by her beliefs when, if not for a few circumstances, I'd probably hold the exact same beliefs, even when they hurt me. She clearly hurts so much from her beliefs. Can you imagine believing that your daughter is going to burn for eternity, but also that you needed to respect and honor her boundaries, and also supporting her transition fully, all while you have a Pentecostal preacher for a husband?

I love her so much, and I hope she can be free from Hellfire theology and doctrine eventually because she deserves to be liberated.

We all do, and I think that's what Easter is all about. Christ liberating us all from the threat of hell - regardless of who we are, what we've done, or what we believe.

[thedunesea]

Hi. How’s your day?

I just want to say I mostly agree with your post about AI writing. I am a student from science background but is enthusiastic about fictions. Also my native tongue is NOT English.

Because of my……rather unique background knowledge, I feel like I have a “weird” stand about AI writing. I feel like 99% people I know use AI writing tools wrong, either they don’t know how to structure their story, how to create conflicts, or how to communicate with AI writing tools.

In summary, they’re either bad at storytelling or bad at using AI tools.

In fact, I use AI writing tools just like your post suggested—I mainly tell them what sentences I would use to describe the scenery, and see if they have better wording than mine. Or I would ask them which adjectives to use here, as google translate is dumb. Or I would ask if a scene which is not from my own culture make sense, as I don’t want to bother any online folks on this matter.

Your post made me feel less guilty about using the tools. I am not sure whether or not it’s a good thing tbh but thank you. I wanted to have some research about this topic, but I got yelled by people’s angry anti-AI writing posts in my face on tumblr most of the time. Like—I get it, but I wonder am I the only one who has the similar idea on this topic? Then I found your post.

I feel like my main concern now is—by using those tools, am I making the “evil” in others’ eyes stronger? As there are news about AI writing tools using online fanfics to train their models, the tools themselves might be unethical.

Thank you again and hope you don’t mistake my message……I’m here to say “thank you” and try to have some conversations over AI writing.

Hello friend, I'm doing fine, thanks, even if quite busy with the end of the school year approaching. I hope you're doing fine too!

I completely understand your fears and your reserves, and I share them. I think that the issue at hand here has two faces we need to tackle. The first is the tool, i.e. artificial intelligence chat bots; the other issue, the really problematic issue, is the way these bots were trained.

My foray into chat gpt was as a teacher, not as a writer: I needed to assess the potentialities and the drawbacks of the tool, since I'm fairly sure I will soon have to account for it when preparing my courses and perhaps even to integrate it into my teaching routine.

I do think that the tool, if used properly, could be really useful for teaching and learning, and also for everyday life. It's like having a very calm, very proper, very family friendly protocol droid. You have to take everything it says with a grain of salt, but it can help you get what you need (i.e. starter bibliography on a topic you aren't familiar with). It can also be invaluable for the uses you described. AI isn't inherently evil, if (and this is a HUGE if) we regulate its uses in order to let it substitute human work only when that work force can be redirected towards more engaging and more useful tasks, and never as a substitute to human knowledge and creativity.

What is evil is the economic system we live in, and this brings us to the second issue. Chatgpt was trained on data provided for free on the web, data that were never meant for this. This in itself is unethical, and a gross misuse of the web. Honestly I don't care that my fics may have been scrapped, but I understand why people do, and anyway my own feelings on the subject are way beyond the point: this is another egregious example of corporations using people's time and engagement to scrap data and profit, and this is one of the evils of our time.

And yet we keep using evil tools all the time. I use whatsapp, and I still have a facebook profile, so I'm feeding data to meta. I am not vegan, and I know all the evils of intensive animal farming. I don't buy a lot of fast fashion, and yet all my clothes are made in developing countries, and I have no idea of the conditions of the workers there. Heck, the fridge I just bought because the old one broke down is produced by a company that used to produce in Italy but then delocalized to a developing country, firing hundreds of employees.

I couldn't have bought an ethical fridge: I don't even know if they exist, and even if they did, I couldn't afford them. I absolutely couldn't afford to only buy clothes made in Italy or Europe. I could go vegan, but honestly I don't really want to. I eat meat very rarely, I only eat local fish (by which I mean fished in Italy, I don't live on the sea) and I buy eggs from certified cage-free hens. I could get rid of whatsapp, but it would complicate my life to an extreme I am not willing to go to. I can't give up google suite because I use it for work.

One thing I don't do, for example, is order delivery food. That is a form of exploitation I choose not to partake in, because it's a choice I can make. Would I want to have pizza delivered to my house sometime? Yes, of course I would. Am I willing to put at risk the life of someone less privileged than me (delivery people here are mostly immigrants, often 40+ years old) to have my pizza delivered to me instead of getting off my ass and going to buy it myself to take away? No, like hell I am!

Why am I saying all this?

Because until I only buy handmade clothes and locally produced foods, only own ethically produced tech (HA!), never use products from meta or google again... Until then, who am I to lecture anyone on their use of chat gpt?

We live in an unethical world. This doesn't make us above reproach, but we have to choose our battles, and very few of us are really in a position to hate on others for the battles they choose - and those they don't.

If chat gpt helps you, get to know its pros and its cons: if using it doesn't bother you, use it! Chances are that the people that would get mad at you are probably using something unethical too - like driking milk, because the disboscation and pollution and soil consumption that are needed to produce our milk are far worse things than a bot scrapping the ao3.

I am sorry for the ramble, and I hope I didn't come across as patronizing: this wasn't really aimed at you, personally, it was more like a written train of thoughts, because honestly I asked myself the same questions you did when I started to think about if and how to incorporate these bots into my teaching routine, and this is the only answer I could find for myself.

[for the record, I won't use it for teaching, not yet: I want to get to know the tool and its training and all these issues way better before I decide to willingly expose my kids to it]

[becomingkatie]

(this post ended up way longer than I'd planned. It's about mental and physical illness and family things.)

Yesterday my dad EMAILED my brother a picture of his truck in a ditch on the side of the road as the way of letting us know he'd been in a car accident. So Andrew forwarded me the email and we were both trying to call him but he wasn't answering. We were trying to decide how big of an overreaction it would be to just start calling hospitals, but the accident didn't look bad, but like... he wasn't answering his phone??

Except, my dad has also been rejecting my calls for a while because he feels like I've taken my mom's side in the divorce (because I won't listen to him vent about their relationship or divorce negotiations). So it wasn't clear if he wasn't answering because he was hurt, or if he was busy dealing with a tow truck and the logistics that come with a car accident, or if he just didn't want to talk to me. He doesn't seem to feel like my brother has abandoned him and he's accepted Andrew's calls more than mine, but he wasn't answering him, either. So we were panicking.

Eventually he called my brother to tell him he was fine, that the truck was being towed, and that was that. No more information.

But then he called me this morning. He was kind - it wasn't the awful, tense calls filled with accusations and vitriol where I have to repeat "I'm not going to talk about this" a half-dozen times. But he's not well. Like, "vomits in the house without warning but doesn't have the strength or energy to clean it up" unwell. Bed-bound, at least today. But when I said I was coming to help take care of him he vehemently refused the offer and cried that he didn't want me to see him like this.

He has a "friend" (girlfriend? friend from high school? how did she get roped into this I have no idea, since she lives like six hours from him) who comes to help him every so often, but she's not coming again for another almost two weeks.

I'm just at a loss. At what point do you say, "I know you don't want me to see you living in filth, but you can't live in filth, so I'm here and I'm going to clean you up and help you."

There's no way he'd let a home care nurse into the house. His delusions mix with reality and he can turn mean and nasty on a dime, so I also don't really want to put myself in that position. But I also love him and can't just let him exist in that state alone, or nearly alone.

As the older sister, I messaged my grandmother on facebook (that's the only way we communicate, and we rarely communicate at all) to let her know about the accident and his poor health. She's panicking wondering what to do, but like... you're his mom? I'm panicking wondering what to do, but it feels like I shouldn't have to be advising her. I don't want us to ambush him and show up, but I also couldn't let her just go on not knowing about this. But it turns out he was just there a week ago and seemed fine?? Which further adds to the confusion around what his condition is and how long it's been this bad.

Anyway, you can have a totally normal and healthy father for nearly thirty years (or be married to a normal and healthy man for 35 years) and then suddenly he's awful and mean and abusive and accusing you of poisoning him, and then suddenly he's sick, puking and shitting and can't clean himself up.

So that's my family tragedy right now. I got "comfort nigiri" yesterday and goodness knows I'm making Ken agree to "comfort pizza" tonight. I have my weekly write-in that I host so unfortunately I have to go out into the world and function.

[kissyougoodnight]

you're literally a puppet of the hamas, Iranian, propaganda machine. they pray on 'open minded' liberal people because you are such an easy target. Whilst you think the media is fooling you, in fact its all your social media feeds that are fooling you. Occupation must end, civilians caught up in the line of fire during war is horrendous. But waking up in the morning with a plan to commit the worst war crime since ww2 is something else. There is no place or room for comparison. there is no whataboutism. The only governments that support or stay quiet about this act are russia/iran/lebanon/syria/north korea. Wake the fuck up, do you align your beliefs with these governments??? hamas is worst than isis, you puppets jsut dont get it yet. For as long as they exist there will never be an end to suffering of the Palestinian people. unarmed civilians, including kids, women and toddlers were brutally murdered. shot on their homes.

https://www.facebook.com/100001831699563/posts/23932970166347372/?mibextid=rS40aB7S9Ucbxw6v

proof that hamas took themselves because they are proud of murdering civilians and desecrating dead bodies

I will try to be brief;

Firstly, criticising my use of social media and then linking Facebook posts is A+ critical thinking.

And I agree that Hamas is a large part of the problem and that is no fault of the Palestinian people. Hamas is a militant group of Israel's own creation and they are not helpful to either side. While they have updated their manifesto to say that they want freedom for the Palestinian's rather than their land returned, Hamas is very much a hindered regime.

That is not to say that they are equal in size or power to their opposition, the IDF. Hamas is not a military, they are not funded by any government/s, they are not representatives of the people. In fact, Palestine has no governance over Gaza and the West Bank, all of their resources are controlled by Israel, as demonstrated by the most recent blockade. (Which by the way is a war crime but just like all the other times Israel has enforced such a thing this will go unpunished.)

It seems like we agree on a lot stances, yes occupation must end, civilians should not be caught in the line of fire. But who is the occupying force? Surely the Zionist state that controls what is known as the world's largest open air prison? (A counterproductive name as this implies the innocent civilians have committed a crime deserving of a sentence but I digress.) You cannot believe that Palestine or Hamas has the power to end the occupation?

You claim that there is no room for "whataboutisms" but this is a genocide over 100 years in the making. How is the Palestinian anger towards Israel unjustified when they have been treated as lesser citizens by the Israeli government? How do we expect them to behave towards a people who's only interactions with them have been filled with hate and violence?

And beyond that, where was this outcry in 2018, 2009, 1967 and every year in between? Calling this incident the worst war crime since WWII is not only a gross exaggeration but also an ignorant statement. The state of Israel that you defend so readily has done worse things than this and you don't even have to look that far back. (I will not even begin to list the hypocrisy of the countries speaking out in Israel's defence and stick to only the parties involved.)

Palestine and their allies all over the world have been calling for an end to the apartheid for many years, any time they have been close to a solution Israel has upturned the negotiations (as the controlling state they have the only power to do so) or the US has used it's veto to stop UN intervention.

Your anger at the way things are is justified, you are just aiming it at the wrong target.