if you’re wondering why spellcheck and grammar check is worse now, it’s because they replaced it with AI! 🥰
now, instead of maintaining a comprehensive, nuanced, and human-maintained encyclopedia by which to check your document, they have switched to an AI that just compares what you’ve written to what other people write in, say, Google Docs, and use the most commonly used iteration.
ever have it change something like “all intents and purposes” to “all intensive purposes” or “should’ve” to “should of”? that’s why!
people make the same spelling and grammar mistakes so often, AI thinks that’s the way you say it because it is a PATTERN DETECTOR and cannot THINK let alone use language.
Not only is that not true, but thinking like that is just not healthy. It also creates a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Look. I’m in my mid-thirties. I don’t think like that. I can’t think like that. The last time I thought like that I was in my early twenties and in the middle of the most severe depression of my life. My body basically started to shut down, it was that bad.
You know what helped get me out of it? My niece was born. Summer that year was gorgeous. I stumbled across a stream swarming with dragonflies while on a walk. I raised a bunny. I completed a 24-hour comic that I still quite like. My parents adopted a dog. I discovered so many new songs. Despite my brain being committed to being miserable, good things kept happening. And I began to expect them.
This year, over a decade later, I hatched chicks and every weekend I visit them at my parents’ farm. The peach trees I planted 3 years ago are bearing fruit. My dogs get compliments on our walks for how well-behaved and sweet they are. The baristas at the coffee shop know my name. That same niece is competing in the junior olympics. Today rain is falling and it smells like petrichor outside. The rain will help my roses bloom.
The problem is you’re thinking too large, too big, too grand in scope. Humans aren’t made to live like that. Very few can handle it. The rest of us? We can look for the good and fix the bad within arm’s reach. We can focus on making progress and goodness where we can see and touch it. So stop worrying about far off things all the time, whether the distance is in time or in space. Doing so will just keep you miserable and prevent you from seeing what’s in front of you.
You don’t think good things will happen? It’s happening right here and right now! Go outside, stand on the sidewalk, and look at the grass by your feet. Do you see the wood sorrel blooming? The clover? Around here we get henpin and deadnettle too. You can pick their flowers from the stem and if you see a drop at the end, that’s nectar! Have a taste, it’s sweet. If you sit and watch for a few minutes you’ll see honey bees! Moths! Butterflies! Stay quiet and a few minutes more you’ll hear birdsong. Such good things outside your door.
Even if you live by a busy road, even if you think you’re surrounded by concrete and ugliness, you’ll still see and hear these things. Take a walk and look, really look, at what’s around you. You’ll see evidence of children playing, of families. You’ll spot a stray cat or a wild bunny, squirrels, pigeons and doves. Crows and ravens. There’s a small plant growing in the crack of a wall. A bird taking a bath in a puddle.
Cats’ fur is still soft and their purrs are loud. Dog tails wag so hard with love and happiness they can sprain them!
You can expect good things. You should! But you need to recalibrate where you’re looking and refocus your expectations.
And I get that it can be hard to get to that point. But there’s a song lyric that’s been sticking with me a lot lately. “We keep doing these things not because they’re guaranteed to make us feel good. But because failing to do them? Guaranteed to make us feel bad.” (Good Morning Sunshine by the Narcissist Cookbook).
So. Stop watching the news. Get off line. They make their money in negativity. And start looking out your window. Start existing where you are. Maybe you won’t start expecting good things right away, but you’ll stop expecting things to always get worse.
I delete most of my posts after a month or so to keep my blog manageable and to organize my reblogs. You have my permission to reblog whatever deleted post I made. It wouldn't be on the internet if I wasn't okay with it getting shared.
I have started my own website where I am organizing resources I've made over the years (and also compiling stuff like recipes and recommendations).
Here are some of the major resources I've made and some of my sideblogs in case you're looking for something that I reblogged, plus my answers to the tech questions I get most frequently:
First of all, here's the death book.
Here's the guide on how to write a research paper.
Here's the de-Googling pamphlet.
Guide on how to talk to people (including helpful commentary from others!)
HERE'S THE LINK TO 2025 California Fire Resources.
I'm also uploading this stuff at archive.org now.
Want to learn how to draw? check @beginningdrawing !
Why I don't go to defcon anymore (tw: sexual assault/harassment)
Are you looking for a good price on computers? Check out @okay-computer.
@compusever - tech and internet stuff.
@your-fave-shills-nfts - celebrities who have pushed NFTs
@how-to-do-activism - how-to's and information about activism and anarchy and stuff.
@depressionbootcamp - mental health and ADHD stuff.
@adultieradults - how-tos and advice that I've posted.
@but-i-eated-it - gluten-free recipes and cooking adventures.
@politicalmissdemeanor - political shit.
@fellow-ny - gender euphoria.
@punkpuns - a comic I used to make.
@pitmusic - my punk band.
@traum-fieber - my black metal band.
@blankie-wanky - cool blankets and fiber projects, mostly by other people.
@ms-demeanor-art-blog - my art stuff.
@ive-got-a-parasite - venom fanblog.
@dunn-v-parker about the plagiarism controversy lawsuit
@yelling-about-college - documenting college life and college strategies; kind of a studyblr?
There are more but those are the ones that I want to share the most mixed in with the ones that people want to see the most.
2023 Specs for buying a computer
How to make a computer meaningfully faster
Basic computer shit:
Basics of encryption and safe internet traffic.
Protonmail for email
Cryptpad.fr to replace gdocs, LibreOffice if you want a free desktop office suite
Windows security is probably fine for your AV but if you want more or have a Mac use Sophos free edition (if you're using linux there is no helpful advice I can give you, you probably know more than I do about it)
Here's a good resource on piracy (not written by me)
Here's a great post of coding resources by @shinelikethunder
My preferred browser is Firefox with privacybadger, decentraleyes, https everywhere, multi-account containers, ublock origin, and auto tab discard (sleeps inactive tabs to save RAM). I also have the wayback machine extension because archiving is good. Duckduckgo is my default browser in firefox.
Bitwarden for password management (free version is great, but $10 a year also gets you 1GB of encrypted file attachments)
If I have to use a chromium browser for some reason I use Opera
If you need to check if your email or password data has been leaked, the site you can check on is haveibeenpwned.com
not to be boring but I like when evil characters…. well not become “redeemed,” more like they become domesticated. its just delightful when like an evil monstrous little bastard man goes from committing murder to getting mad someone misplaced their costco card or left the jar of mayo on the counter all day.
Above image is a pride flag with every color band represented by a NASA image. White is Earth clouds, pink is aurora, blue is the Sun in a specific wavelength, brown is Jupiter clouds, black is the Hubble deep field, red is the top of sprites, orange is a Mars crater, yellow is the surface of Io, green is a lake with algae, blue is Neptune, and purple is the Crab Nebula in a specific wavelength.
Snart was being controlled by his evil dad and Barry's first plan was "pretend to be Snart's boyfriend who is badly pretending to not be Snart's boyfriend, which will help Somehow"
