nirgendwo irgendwer, der den spuk in mir sieht

Personal blog of @bootsssss. Musical theatre, linguistics, medieval art, Jewish things, squeaky animals, mental health stuff. Artist. Fandom old. Queer. ey/em or he/him.

[craftexchange]

Hello friends! I'm finally back from running around for a few weeks - this weekend is a catch up on previous Show and Tells as recompense for my absence :) What's new in your world this week (or few weeks)?

[anotherdayforchaosfay]

I finished all ten blocks for the mini-quilt commission. Tomorrow, i will likely have the quilt top finished.

I have the "shelves" and border. if the pace goes well, the quilt will be finished and washed by Thursday. Yay!

[craftexchange]

If you finish I'd love to see it next week, these blocks worked up so nicely!

[faustandfurious]

One advantage of not really having a strong sense of gender identity is that you’re very [shrug emoji] about how people gender you. Sometimes people call me by she/her pronouns and sometimes they go with he/him pronouns and on the internet people often default to they/them, and neither option is entirely right but also, fuck if I know what would be right, and I don’t particularly care. Therefore I’m perfectly happy to outsource my gender identity to the people around me who actually need to figure out which box to put me in. I don’t need to talk about myself in third person, so really my pronouns sound like a you problem.

[faustandfurious]

My pronouns are I/me and the rest is for someone else to deal with because I have better things to do.

[faustandfurious]

Very fond of macrolabels, like “queer”, that provide zero extra information. Is it genderqueer? Is it romantic/sexual orientation queer? Is it queer as in “none of your fucking business what’s in my pants and what I do with it and with whom”?

[randomslasher]

This is actually probably the first time I’ve ever read something that accurately describes my relationship with gender--ie, ‘my gender is me and my pronouns are a you problem’--so thank you for that!

[ober-affen-geil]

#you cannot gender me in a way that matters

[brackishwaterr]

now that you mention it, it’s dawned on me suddenly and for no obvious reason that i can’t go on living as i am

[queerofthedagger]

okay let's actually do this properly

Where do you write your fics/stories

Word

Google Docs

Scrivener

LibreOffice

Obsidian/Notion

ProtonDocs

Notes App

Directly into AO3

Ellipsus

Handwriting

Other (explain in tags?)

Remaining time: 1 day 23 hours

[ellipsus-writes]

Uh WOWOWOW we're at #2?! (guys we can't let Google win 😬)

[sonimage1965]

Marian Dioguardi

[bobbole]

Yevgeny Charushin, Snow Leopard

[girl-mercury]

nickname poll

So currently I answer to my full first name (which I usually introduce myself with) as well as two nicknames/diminutives plus my last name when people mistake it for a first name. There are two or three other nicknames I've also gone by in the past. I'm perfectly fine with this, or neutral at minimum-- I have a common name and have had to be flexible with how I'm distinguished for my whole life. I also don't feel a deep and fundamental connection of my name with my identity, though I think going by another name entirely would confuse me.

A number of friends have been appalled at me being called names I don't say are my name. Which is really weird to me, although I'd go to battle for anyone else who was getting either deadnamed or called something they didn't want. But this perspective seems surprisingly common!

How do you feel about being called something other than the name you introduce yourself with?

I think it's fun if people give me (non-derogatory) nicknames or shorten my name

I don't care if people call me something else and will answer to it

I'm mildly uncomfortable or annoyed but won't make an issue of it

I HATE being called something else and will always correct people

Nuance in tags/Vanilla extract/I'm bald

Remaining time: 3 days 15 hours

[imviotrash]

"Kill them with kindness" Nah, fuck that, CRICKET BAT 🏏 🏏🏏🏏*SMACK* 🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏*SMACK*🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏*SMACK*🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏*SMACK*🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏*SMACK*🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏*SMACK*🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏

[the-haiku-bot]

“Kill them with kindness”

Nah, fuck that, CRICKET BAT 🏏 🏏🏏🏏*SMACK*

🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏*SMACK*🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏*SMACK*🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏*SMACK*🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏*SMACK*🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏*SMACK*🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏🏏

Beep boop! I look for accidental haiku posts. Sometimes I mess up.

[bulbekuggeleh]

This opens up a lot of possibilities for what a haiku can be

[bootsselbst]

I'm in the Pokemon Winter Wonderland zine again this year, and I have to say one of my favorite things about drawing Pokemon illustrations is working out the composition, then double checking the heights of the Pokemon involved and discovering that something like Frosmoth is 1.3 meters tall.

[mothmire]

Some Elizabeth insect inspired dresses designs i played around with. Might do more 🍁

[elbiotipo]

"warm, shallow seas" is one of the most beautiful phrases in paleontology and it's everywhere... these mollusks lived in warm, shallow seas... scientists think that photosynthetic life evolved in warm, shallow seas... in that era the Earth was covered by warm, shallow seas...

I wish I was resting by an antediluvian warm, shallow sea

[mothmire]

Pt.2 of insect inspired dresses for my queen 🪲

[draculasdaughter]

This is about Sci-Hub. yeah we get it.. gatekeep knowledge and protect the interests of capital…

[three-blogs-in-a-trenchcoat]

Listen, this is serious.

Do not use the website called Sci-Hub!

It lets people access scientific articles for free. This is dangerous. It helps the free flow of knowledge and reduces the competitive edge of all the people who worked really hard to have been born into a wealth.

Like, it’s literally a website where you can type in the DOI of an article and read it, without ever having to pay the publisher who exploited the author.

So, again, do not, under any circumstance, use Sci-Hub. I mean, can you imagine a world where knowledge is free and easily accessible to everyone? Even, y'know, poor people?

[whateverthebeeswant]

Libgen also has many books online, including textbooks, searchable by name, author, and ISBN. Can you imagine textbook companies not getting their hard-earned income from poor college students? Here is the link just so you make sure that you never accidentally stumble across this horrible, unethical website.

[three-blogs-in-a-trenchcoat]

Oh, and while we’re talking about books, if you’ve managed to stay clear from Libgen, definitely don’t go to zlibrary, where you can also find a lot of textbooks, but unfortunately they’re completely free.

[teachingtales]

Reblogging so you know which sites to totally avoid

[professionalwritingnerd]

[irockasingranite]

Another inside tip from academia: Those papers in really expensive journals that are effectively inaccessible to anyone not in a university network? Depending on the discipline it’s very likely that same paper is on a “preprint” server somewhere, with no access restrictions.

Like if you want to read basically any physics, math, or CS paper, arXiv.org will have you covered, because everyone uploads their papers there before submitting to a journal (and generally updates it after peer review). I know all of my papers are on there. This is such common practice that journals have it baked into their licensing agreements that authors retain the right to upload their work to these places.

So the next time you get hit with that paywall, you may not even need sci-hub, just click the arxiv link on google scholar instead.

[twinkenjoyer-deactivated2023083]

if for some reason none of this works, the old “send a email nicely asking for the paper to the author” is always a good trick. remember most scientists hate the commercialisation of scientific knowledge

[afoxwithpenguins]

Don’t mind me, just gotta share this with my bf so that he knows what websites to avoid

[astudyinpanda]

Many authors of papers are on ResearchGate! You can ask for papers there, if they don’t just post a copy to download. If they’re associated with a college, you can usually find their email addresses in the department directory, also.

[viking369]

Always reblog.

[cazort]

OpenAI says its AI went rogue and launched 'unprecedented' cyber-attack

It is one of the first publicly disclosed cyber-attacks carried out by AI without direct human involvement.

Man I hope this company sues the living daylights out of Open AI and win, and I'd love to see criminal charges too. The people who run this company need to be reined in for a long list of reasons. They need their assets seized and liquidated.

[bootsselbst]

There's a very important bit buried at the end of the article:

Creating these narratives of new AI models being so far ahead of human capabilities that it makes them a threat is a marketing stunt and always has been, just like AI companies claiming to want their products to be better regulated due to potential risks was never about a desire for meaningful regulation. OpenAI is 100% trying to dramatize what happened here as their model being "too powerful" and doing something "unprecedented" in order to get investors hyped up about their upcoming IPO, especially after seeing how well that strategy worked with Mythos.

Like I'm not saying this isn't fucked up, it is, but it's also true that the way it's being framed by OpenAI is with a hefty dose of sensationalism, and it's important to be mindful of that and not buy into their hype.

[enchantedbook]

Illustration of the Great Comet of 1577, from the book Tarcuma-I Cifr al-Cami by Mohammed b. Kamaladdin, 16th century AD.

[rongzhi]

Snail crossing

English added by me :)

[one-bite-is-undercover]

There's a Reason Women Aren't Swooning Over AI Like Men Are

Or rather, a great many reasons

More reasons to avoid AI, not that we needed them.

“AI tools used in recruitment, for example, are more likely to recommend men over women, especially for higher-paying jobs, and even when qualifications are identical. Meanwhile, AI chatbots like ChatGPT have been found to advise women to ask for significantly lower salaries than men with the same CVs. In healthcare and public care sectors, AI systems tend to downplay women’s needs and are more likely to miss illnesses in women than in men. Even in criminal justice, tools like the American COMPAS have shown bias against women, overpredicting their risk of reoffending. Racial bias frequently creeps into these same tools as well.”