#solution oriented

[the-fiction-will-knit-the-real]

Trying very hard to not be upset with myself for only being able to put limited effort into a job search due to taking care of my health. It can be hard though. Would appreciate any positive thoughts or advice, though this is mostly just a thought dump and I do have a general path forward

And it's not like I'm doing nothing at all, but of course it doesn't matter to most people how much effort I put in, it's never enough unless I'm getting offers. Even the month back in the summer where I put in over 500 applications, it "wasn't enough" because I wasn't getting any interviews. Clearly I should have been submitting 600 applications

I've been working lately on spending any time and energy I can devote to the job search, on resume revising. Because that's the only thing within my control at this point that I can do differently, and the "spamming hundreds of job applications with my current resume" approach isn't working. I do finally have some friends who will help review my resume, too, and I personally have read up on plenty of tips too. So I'm hopeful. It's just very slow

I started my current job search in February. So that means we're 10 months in with nothing to show. Only one interview, and they ghosted me afterward. It's hard to not take this personally. But I do know that [1] the job market is absolute shit rn and has been all year, [2] I'm doing my best, and it's still nowhere near the amount of work into this search that I'd like it to be, and [3] I am shooting myself in the foot quite a bit by limiting myself to the region of one particular (expensive) city, but I have good reasons to need to do that

Ugh. Everything is so expensive, too, even though I've just been purchasing the absolute necessities for the past 6 months. I've been on short term disability for 4 months now (since I was working a barista job that was becoming bad for my health due to having to be upright/standing for so long), and it's not nearly enough. Even though I (luckily?) don't have to pay for rent or utilities right now (the roommate situation is real dicey though), I've still been going into debt every month just to pay for food, necessary bills, and healthcare

I've made the decision to go back to the barista job at the end of the month, despite being terrified I will pass out on shift, since we still haven't figured out how to effectively treat the POTS (though I do have appointments with actual specialists coming up in the new year, so there's plenty of hope there). But I literally can't afford not to be working, and no one else will so much as interview me

I don't say this to make people feel bad, just because it's unfortunately the way my life is truthfully right now, and has been all year. It absolutely sucks ass. And the worst part for me is that I know many people have it much worse, and society on the whole doesn't give a shit about any of us.

But it's also incredibly important to me to keep having hope, and equally important to keep taking action steps to try to improve my situation. It's already been paying off greatly with health stuff and with friendships. And, to some degree, with job stuff too - I'm learning a lot about what's important to me in a job, and how to present myself as a great candidate for those kinds of jobs.

[perfection-in-progress]

It's honestly such a funny thing. AI is huge right now. Most of the population uses it one way or another. From pictures to writing to coding.

But despite how popular it is among the masses and even many employers. Students are prohibited by it and sometimes automatically fail if AI detection software is accurate. Using AI for videos and text posts makes you seem inauthentic. The amount of data AI collects from scraping and using "user approved" information is mind boggling and very terrifying in terms of internet safety.

Upside is AI is super expensive to run. OpenAI spends billions a year just to run it. Not including maintenance needed to keep that sort of thing running. It's nothing sustainable long term right now. But we will see what the days ahead have planned.

But my opinion on this matter is this. AI is fine if it benefits the masses without ruining the lives of others. Whether that be reputation from AI developed nudes of real people used for blackmail(happening alot with teens on Instagram), loss of work for people whose careers and fields would be replaced with AI and automation.

Solutions would be to include a way to censor AI or prevent it from creating nudes of any kind. ChatGPT can already detect when you're asking for a way to hack someone and deny it(of course people have found ways around it by rewording their request but it's being worked on). For loss of work, use the money saved from switching to automation and AI and using it to provide a universal income for everyone affected.(4-8k monthly depending on where you live). Doing so humanity can move forward. People can live without fear of being exploited through nudes and without fear of losing their place of living because they would have the funds needed.

Thanks for coming to my TED talk.

[swirley1618]

[toneelspeelster]

plainwater by anne carson

[tenowls]

kghn doodle dump teehee

[happyk44]

To me, children of Zeus are natural strategists in the same way children of Athena are. But the difference is that Zeus and his kids have multiple plans and contingencies if a plan fails at a certain point and needs to shift gears. So like they employ Plan A and get all the way to stage four of the plan when suddenly there's a deviation from expectations for whatever reason. So they shift gears from Plan A1 to Plan A2, which accounted for this deviation and continue on.

Athena and her kids, however, come up with one solid, somewhat broader plan and refuse to deviate from it at all unless there is literally no other choice, in which case they will improvise quickly and efficiently to accomodate the change and get back on track to the original plan.

[misc-obeyme]

Ok, an Mc who is TENSE like aches 24/7 but they are used to it... Plus a barbatos. Has Mc always been this tense? Humans are fragile, I can't imagine the pain... I can't allow this to continue.

Idk, just more care taker barb.

Bows for barb

I feel like caretaker is Barb's default mode, so he's definitely going to be trying to find ways to help MC in this sort of situation. Probably wants to find out what causes the pain so he can give MC some kinda tea or maybe special healing ointment or something. Might even just have a spell that helps, too.

Aside from that, I would think he would just want MC to rest. He wouldn't want them to exacerbate the issue, so I see him being very firm about MC not doing anything too strenuous. He's pretty indulgent in general, but not with this kinda stuff.

[immortalarizona]

oriented aroace culture is having this one friend you love so much you would platonically marry her not just for the tax benefits in your amatonormative society but because she’s genuinely great to be around and you’d be down to spend the rest of your life with her but you don’t want to tell her any of this because she’s allo and you know you can’t provide for Those needs and you don’t want to hold her back from finding a partner who fulfills her better so instead you’re just gonna pine in silence.

[neroushalvaus]

Girl help I have a fix-it in my head for My Shows, La Promesa, also known as Spanish Downton Abbey, a show famously only watched by middle-aged Finnish women

[dinosaurcharcuterie]

The lowest calorie meal at McDo is the nugget Happy Meal, so that's what I usually get when we're on the road and get hungry. (Bonus: aunt points for saving up the toys for the niblings.)

I just wish people wouldn't stare whenever I eat fries.

[krtart]

Writing Blind & Visually Impaired Characters

A while back, someone asked me if I could share some of the resources I use. I figured maybe other people might find it useful as well! ^_^ Due to computer switches I could only trawl through the last ~5 years of research, but it’s still a fair collection.

(Obligatory disclaimer: I am not visually impaired! I just try to listen to people who are. The vast majority of these are written by and/or for people with visual impairments.)

.

Vocab

American Printing House key definitions — Wayback machine

.

Blogs, posts, essays, and speeches by folk with visual impairments

General sites:

Mimzy Writing Online (masterpost for writing blind characters) — Wayback machine

Where’s Your Dog — Wayback machine

Albinism Up Close — Wayback machine

Specific posts:

Why blindfolding yourself is misleading:

NFB member John Pere’s video & transcript — Wayback machine

Graduate researcher Arielle Silverman’s video & transcript — Wayback machine

Blind physician — Wayback machine

Missing eye / monocular vision — Wayback machine

Driving with albinism — Wayback machine (chronological series of posts, next post link is at the bottom)

.

Posts of unknown/mixed authorship

Writing blind characters (tumblr thread) — Wayback machine

.

Sighted guidance

How to Be a Sighted Guide by Vision Loss Resources — Wayback machine

.

Long cane use

Care and Feeding of the White Cane: Instructions in Cane Travel for Blind People by Thomas Bickford, hosted on the NFB website — Wayback machine

.

Orientation and Mobility

This is the term for specific training around navigating the world with a visual impairment. It will be a useful search term for you.

Additionally, I have purchased the O&M training course Step By Step that was published by the American Printing House. The actual video training modules are incredibly clunky to navigate through, and personally I’ve never had the patience. I’m also not comfortable redistributing their whole product like that.

But… the pdf study guides from the program are useful on their own, and those I will share! (Especially since they used to be available for free on the APH website. >_>;)

These are from the second edition.

O&M Training study guides (Internet Archive access)

.

Careers

American Printing House career connect — Wayback machine

.

Cooking

NFB: Suggestions for the Blind Cook — Wayback machine

APH: Safe Cooking Techniques — Wayback machine

BBC: Article about a blind Master Chef contestant — Wayback machine

.

Visualization tools

For remnant sight and color blindness.

Visual acuity simulator — Wayback machine (icons at the top switch between vision charts & illustrative photos, bar at the bottom adjusts acuity)

Color blindness simulator — Wayback machine

.

Thinking about disability

These aren’t specifically about visual impairment, and include other physical disabilities as well as autism.

But they’re important voices to hear, and can be useful for framing your understanding and general approach.

"Don't Mourn For Us" by Jim Sinclair — Wayback machine

“Confessions of a Bitter Cripple" by Elizabeth Barnes — Wayback machine

"If you can do X, why can't you do Y?" by Mel Baggs — Wayback machine

People can adapt to and accommodate for more than you might think (tumblr thread) — Wayback machine

.

And finally, some related tags on my personal blog: Disability | Disability rights | Writing resources: disability | Accessibility

[ourlordapollo]

Don't mind me throwing a slight temper tantrum because I'm frustrated

Trying to remind myself that this is only my 4th day of doing drawabox and I haven't exactly been able to dedicate hours of my life to it, so of course I'm not going to have tangibly improved yet, but I'm sooooo frustraaaaated

I have drawn 213 circles using their method and the 213th one is not an improvement on the first. I have drawn 291 straight lines using their method and the 291st is not an improvement on the 1st. But the internet is full of success stories. I can't find one single person with one bad thing to say about drawabox.

It's making me feel actually crazy. Like is it me? Is there something wrong with me?

[tarantula-hawk-wasp]

Looking into how to transport a chemical for disposal for work and everything is just ‘follow the state and local guidelines’. And are the state guidelines in the room with us now? Can I see them? ‘Take it to an approved waste disposal plant’ and can I know how to find that???

[fooltofancy]

u know when you're so unreasonably mad about something stupid you just know something's lurking in your psyche to jumpscare you later

[wyrddogs]

Putting things into perspective

From a text conversation with my agility trainer:

Me, in mild despair after a training session that went... okay: How depressed should I be that Zaku is taking major steps backwards in his distractability around critters? He gives me 60 - 70% of his attention when training in my yard, and I've started having to leash him while training or he'll just leave.

Trainer: How old is he?

Me: Just turned seven months yesterday.

Trainer: Ooh, heading into adolescence. Soon squirrels will be trumped by girls girls girls. Be happy he will work on a leash!

Me: Okay I guess I won't fall into complete despair then.

Trainer: Squirrels = best fun ever. Reward good attention with a release to go hunt for the furry beasts. Then work on recall, play, work, release to hunt. It's actually a great way to learn to work through distractions.

---

DIAGNOSED AS: Seven month old puppy.

So anyway he is going to start wearing a dragline in the yard again, and I know what we'll be working on for the foreseeable future.

[1000-silverfish-in-a-hoodie]

It’s really cool too see how Fear of Flying shows goal oriented therapy. I feel like a lot of modern depictions of therapy focus on long term therapy without a treatment plan, which usually just leads to you talking too a therapist who has incentive to treat you