Regi: geek, thinks she's funnier than she actually is, Pollyannaish, but really, she should be old enough to know better by now. This blog is basically a scrapbook of stuff she likes. LJ: elfinblaze.livejournal.com/ fanfic: reginawren.livejournal.com/ Cultural note for Indigenous Australians: this blog may contain images of people who are deceased. Relevant posts are tagged with the term "kumanjayi" for your blocklists.
my therapist said once "we get good at what we practice, so be careful what you practice" and tbh she was so right for that but also How Dare You??? open my eyes like that???
Further context: Durham city council (Reform UK) cut funding and support for Pride. The Durham Miner's Association and other trade unions raised enough money for Durham Pride 2026 to go ahead - a direct call back to when Lesbian and Gays Support the Miners (LGSM) raised money for mining communities when Margaret Thatcher seized union funding during the miner strikes of 1984-85.
At the 1985 Labour party meet, the motion to support LGBT rights as a party was passed due to a block vote from mining unions.
Stephen Guy, the chair of the Durham Minersâ Association, said that when it became apparent Durham Pride was under threat, he took it upon himself to âencourage the trade union movement to step up and do the right thing, and stand shoulder to shoulder with the LGBT+ community [âŚ] They not only raised funds for us, but came to our communities, uplifted our spirits when they were down, and showed their solidarity.â
ok i am curious. how long is the longest song in your library (not counting tracks that are like several songs in one file like a full album mix or symphony recording or whatever) (also if it is longer than 20 minutes say the name in the tags i am curious)
ok i would like to clarify it has to be music and it can't just be a short song that's been looped a bunch. that still counts as several songs in one file, it's just several of the same song in one file. no audiobooks no podcasts no plants vs zombies theme 2 hour loop
So you can avoid them stealing things from you, the artist/writer, etc.
Pro GenAI websites/Programs:
Facebook
Instagram
X/Twitter (Remember, Grok gives people cancer)
Threads
Pro Writing Aid
Grammarly
Duolingo
Google Docs
Microsoft Word/all Microsoft products Takes from and will feed their machine.
Youtube (taking advantage of people who are hearing impaired. ==;;)
Adobe Products. All of them. If you HAVE to use them (Some businesses require it), save offline because there is a film of at least some privacy protections there, so if you have to sue, you can say it violates US privacy law. Remember, contracts do not circumvent US law.
Corel won't feed the machines, but still uses AI stolen from other artists. Which sucks since Corel Draw is the second best overall for vector programs. (Plus I love Painter, but I bought the offline version to avoid AI). (Canadian company)
Canva Takes and feeds their machine.
Deviant Art Not only supports AI, but put a tool in and said they are going to steal your work if you like it or not for their machine.
Sketchup went Pro-GenAI. The thing is that you can do the same thing in Blender these days with precise measurements.
Autodesk has stated they are Pro-Gen AI here. It is not clear if they will use your models to feed their machine. But be on guard. They make Maya and 3Dmax. You can replace it with Blender.
Neutral ground:
Tumblr (there is a way to opt out [Link] and they don't have an active AI machine.) https://www.tumblr.com/dookins/743519550598987776/heres-how-to-disable-third-parties-like-ai
Etsy allows GenAI, but still has some (minor) restrictions. I'd still be cautious. (Also be cautious of drop shippers). Complaints about too much AI and AI images+patterns made by Ai still exist on the website. They lean slightly more pro-AI, but still won't let it run completely amok, say like Facebook. They won't feed your work into a machine, but also don't ban it through robots.txt.
Bluesky They don't use an AI algorithm except for in the "Discover" section of their website, but while they are anti-GenAI strongly, they don't seem to block the Gen AI bots from entry, so you'd still have to use Nightshade or Glaze (links below). There is no opt-out because they don't need an opt out. (Leaning towards strong position on AI, but I wish they would block GenAI bots).
Searxng- If you super want to screw over Google, in general, and have some tech savvy, you can set up your own search engine through searxng. It's easier on Windows and Linux than it is on a Mac. (Mac you need Docker), but if you're determined on privacy, Searxng adds a layer of privacy. Some of it sometimes uses bits of AI, but most of it doesn't and you can fuss with the settings so it doesn't spit out AI results. At sheer minimum Google will stop spitting out weird videos on Youtube at you because in your private browsing, you searched for the origin of ball bearings while not logged in for a book and Google likes to break privacy laws.
Strong positions against AI:
Scrivener (Creator vowed against AI) Writing program. There is an active forum, and versions for Mac, Linux and PC. It is paid, but at ~60 USD, it's cheaper than most programs. There is usually a holiday sale around Christmas. It has a learning curve, but with an active forum with the programmer of it there to ask obscure questions it's not a dead zone. They often take suggestions and implement them over time. (Especially if you rank the importance, applications, etc) US company.
LibreOffice Open source and free Spreadsheet and Word processor program that can replace Microsoft Word. Some people might have seen older versions where it was called Neo Office (now extinct) and Open Office. LibreOffice is still populated, plus the forums are super helpful if you get stuck. The UX is pretty intuitive if you've used Microsoft Word. Scrivener, BTW, supports exporting to odt (the native file) as well as .doc, and this can open both. The slight thing is that sometimes it doesn't export to .doc smoothly. And I DO wish more magazines, and agent (big clue here) supported .odt files since it is free. Part of the reason .odt isn't as supported is because Microsoft and Adobe have a deal with the devil with each other, so Adobe's Book formatting program InDesign doesn't support ODT. (BTW, if you have a good open source replacement for InDesign that supports ODT, let me know.)
Dabble (as suggested by SF stories, see reblog) is a writing program. Similar to Scrivener. Has vowed against AI and to resist it. 108 dollars a year for Basic. It is almost twice the price of Scrivener who lets you update for fairly cheap. 29 dollars a month, v. 59 dollars for the whole program (Scrivener) for the same features of Premium. You choose.
yWriter is a free Writing program and like Scrivener, and has vowed against AI Last I looked it had some UX issues, but some people swear by it. The learning curve is higher than Scrivener which is saying something.
Ellipsus is an online writing program and vowed against AI. The main feature I like (which Scrivener doesn't have) is the ability to change spellcheck based on region/language. It is a requested feature of Scrivener, but lower priority. So if you have a Brit, you can get the spelling for the character. They are a British-based company.
Cara.app (The creator of the website sued GenAI there is no chance they'll convert) is an artist website. Cara is trying to institute an auto Glaze/Nightshade into the website if given enough funds. People see it as a soft replacement for deviant art. (which went fully AI) If you believe in human art, please donate if you can. Zhang Jingna, the Creator,is Chinese-Singporean. She lives in Singapore.
Clip Studio Paint added AI, but saw the light and decided to protect artists instead because of protest and removed it. There are tutorials and a good forum if you get super stuck. Based in Japan, so the UI and UX is really clean.
Davinci Resolve Pro is a film editing software that's super good. There is a free version and a paid version. The forums are responsive. The programmers aren't always present. There is a healthy group of tutorials. US company. Clean UX. It does take a little bit of time to remember the shortcuts.
Tahoma2D is anti-AI and open source animation program. Takes a little getting used to, but is good for animations and doesn't crash as often as Animate. Programmers are in the forums and some bugs are fixed within hours. The forums are super responsive and helpful.
Krita open source and free, no AI. I'd rank it secondary to Clip Studio Paint (which is paid) I haven't tried the forums, but it's pretty intuitive and can stand for a lower level replacement for Painter, and do a lot of the basics of Photoshop. It's usually ranked higher than the equally open source Gimp.
Writer P AKA Writer+ (app for when you're on the go) is a simple word processor app for your phone that doesn't use AI. The original programmer stopped updating, so Writer+ person took over and isn't out to make a profit since it's free in the spirit of the original app. It has subfolders you can use. Since it was programmed before GenAI it doesn't have AI. Intuitive, easy to use. Fairly easy to upload the files through three dots->share. The files can save to your card or phone with some settings fussing. Simple word processor.
Inkscape is a free vector program and no AI. It is harder to use than illustrator and has less features. But if you're doing smaller vectors for one-offs with less complexity, it'll do you after some learning curve. Best of the lot. I hate Affinity Designer which is the same thing, only paid. (Neither Affinity program was worth the money paid)
Affinity (Designer, etc) swore to be AI-free and does Vector and Photos. The UX is messy, I dislike the program and regret paying for it. Inkscape and Krita are better UX and do the same thing. The forums aren't as friendly since there has been an onslaught of people seeing it's supposed to be a replacement for Photoshop and Illustrator, but the programmers aren't present. The people on the forums are often on edge about this assertion. And the capabilities of the program don't outshine basically Krita or Inkscape capabilities (both free). What is usually intuitive is not. UK company. If you're going to pay for a program, go for Clip Studio Paint which rivals Corel Painter.
Blender is a 3D art program and does not use GenAI. It can do 2D animation, but Tahoma is easier to use in this regard. It's open source and free. Plus there are plenty of tutorials. The forums can be touch and go sometimes, but there are plenty of sub Blender communities that might be responsive. It can also do animation.
Handmade vowed against AI and promised to never sell itself for stock prices to prevent AI (as a replacement for Etsy.)
Discover a world of creativity and craftsmanship through Handmade, an innovative platform connecting passionate artisans with discerning buy
Proton (to replace Google Suite) as suggested by SF Stories (see reblog) Vowed against AI. They are missing a spreadsheet, but have online and offline capabilities, plus a built-in VPN.
But you need a pro website...
Look up robots.txt and AI bots: https://www.cyberciti.biz/web-developer/block-openai-bard-bing-ai-crawler-bots-using-robots-txt-file/
Use cloudflare:
Use Nightshade:
https://nightshade.cs.uchicago.edu/whatis.html
which will poison the algorithm
Use Glaze:
Take Away:
The thing is you think you doing it alone will do nothing, but the more AI feeds on itself, AI images, the worse they become, and the less detailed so, denying it the images, adding poison or not being able to read the human text is eventually going to lead to an AI collapse.
Analysis shows that indiscriminately training generative artificial intelligence on real and generated content, usually done by scrapi
And why not help that along?
I don't want to give cancer to poor people [Link] or make the planet burn faster [Link]. So GenAI collapse is everything I dream of. GenAI apocalypse is not.
affinity are now owned by canva and have ai tools if you have a canva paid account. i bought it back when and while its not as bad as it could have been, its still pretty disappointing.
Here is an article from NPR about it (May 22, 2026):
Carolina Milanesi, an independent technology analyst, said Google is trying to make its cash cow business â search â richer and more personalized, and it will make shopping easier. But there is a risk that users may have fewer choices about what to click.
"Right now it's: I ask a question, I get a bunch of answers and I feel that I'm in control as to which answer I take, or if I'm looking for something, which product I'm going to end up buying. That is going to be less so going forward," she said.
Milanesi envisions AI-enabled search and agents proposing products to consumers â perhaps even those they have requested â but with less clarity or choice around where it's coming from.
"If you're going to say: 'I want a pair of Jordans, go find them,' you're not necessarily sure what steps have been taken and whether the AI has used a source or a store that was paid for and therefore came up in the search results," she said, "or if AI actually went and did their due diligence and picked the best for me as a customer."
And here's one from Time magazine (May 20, 2026):
While Google already has âAI Mode,â the company will now power the whole search bar through its new Gemini 3.5 Flash model.Â
Instead of the classic list of blue links, Google Search will now also generate a custom page with an AI-generated summary of what youâre searching about, which will then trigger a conversation with AI Mode on the main page, allowing users to ask follow-up questionsâsimilar to the kind of layout you would see when opening ChatGPT.
And a little more from Time's article on how this may affect the websites that we are trying to search for:
When Google first started implementing AI-assisted results, news publishers warned of âcatastrophicâ impacts on the industry, much of which relies on Google search to drive users to their websites.Â
Last year, news websites saw significant traffic declines as chatbots increasingly replaced Google search as the primary way to find sites and ask questions.Â
Small businesses also noted drops in traffic to their sites from Google, which has traditionally delivered customers. Â
Lily Ray, vice president of SEO strategy & research at Amsive, a digital marketing agency, warned as early as last year that Googleâs planned changes to search are âgoing to have a devastating impact on the Internet.âÂ
âIt will severely cut into the main source of revenue for most publishers and it will disincentivize content creators who rely on organic search traffic, which is millions of websites, maybe more,â she told Technology Magazine. Â
Finally finished this whole set and took the opportunity to revamp the older ones.
Itâs been fun.
Prints can be found here.
https://oscarcaselart.tumblr.com/
Yay, I can actually stay and watch the whole show this Sunday morning!
JJ singing the Queen of the Night aria!! And his new song makes me cry for the sheer beauty. Call it Stendhal Syndrome. I can't help it; I love a countertenor.
I like this flag parade. What a great way to reveal the acts.
I'm not going to comment on every song because I've already done that and frankly I don't have a lot to say on some of them.
Denmark: I think this is the best Søren's voice has been so far. I'm glad Denmark got him to represent them.
Belgium: I love having Danny Estrin (from Voyager) with his musical knowledge in the commentary booth so Australia gets to hear commentary like, "this is a very vocally challenging song." It gives me another thing to consider when listening to the song.
Greece: My niece loves Greece. Those colours and computer graphics really work for a thirteen year-old.
Australia: I've liked a grand total of 1 Delta Goodrem song in my life and it's not this one, but her stage presence is amazing. Experience and confidence count for a lot.
Serbia: Bring the metal! Electrifying. Doom metal is not my preferred sub-genre of metal but it's a hell of a performance. Thank you, Serbia!
Croatia: This has become my second favourite song this year. I love the harmonies, I love the visuals and the powerful impact they make together. Just⌠wow.
Moldova: It's interesting because this isn't my style of music at all, but it's just so joyful I can't help but get into it. Viva, Moldova!
Finland blew the minds of both my sister and my niece. My sister said, "holy shit!" and sat up straight on the couch, and my niece just stared with her mouth open. In case you wanted to know what some casuals think of it.
Okay, Michael actually made me laugh with that "Bangaranga Jalla, Eins, Zwei, Drei, Ya Ya Ya." Yeah, that's Eurovision as it should be.
Lithuania: My unexpected love. It's different and interesting, and what a lovely voice!
Italy: I love how theatrical this performance is, a whole show unfolding behind Sal Da Vinci, and the dancing is great. And the song has grown on me.
I missed most of Norway because I was dealing with my period but I'm back for my favourite: Romania! This is it for me; I'm turning up my volume. I love Alexandra's performance and I would like this song inscribed on my eardrums please. Wow, the energy!
Also yay, Austria! This song is so fun. It's also the best CosmĂł's voice has sounded so far. Lovely baritone.
Danny Voyager called the interval mashup a "Eurovision fever dream." Lordi singing Kisses for Me?! But it was a lot of fun; I enjoyed that.
I'm going to have a heart attack waiting for Australia's results. And I'm not even a Delta fan. Eurovision is too stressful.
Well done Bulgaria!
It's not my favourite but I kind of love it anyway. I spent so much time trying to convince my family that Bangaranga would go off live, and I was right about that at least. Congratulations, Bulgaria. Well, deserved.
Ok, I admit I laughed at the intro skit. It was dumb enough to tickle me. Or maybe I just needed that because I'm in crampy pain and my sister is in hospital and I need a bit of a break. Either way.
I love Bangaranga from Bulgaria. It's fun and Dara has so much charm on stage. Good opening.
And I know it has its fans but Azerbaijan puts me straight back to sleep. Sorry.
Romania is my favourite this year! I turned up my volume just for this: now this is how you rock the Eurovision stage. What a voice!
Luxembourg is⌠fine? I don't dislike it and Eva is charming, but it's not much more than a pleasant enough song to me. It's nice.
Czechia: gorgeous voice and perfect live. Also, too slow for this early in the morning.
France doing another perfect voice. Every few years there's a very skilled teenager on stage and this is the one this year.
Break on SBS, which means it's breakfast time for me. I'm loving Danny Estrin and Courtney Act as our commentators.
Armenia looks like my computer monitor at work: covered in post-it notes. I kind of love this. I love the energy.
Switzerland is my youngest sister's favourite. Perfect voice too. I want to like this song but something is stopping me from getting completely on board. Great performance though.
Cyprus looks good but the vocals⌠ouch.
Austria: I love this song, genuinely. He seems a bit nervous but it's still a fun song.
Atvara from Latvia is a great singer and I like the visuals, the shadow play and chiaroscuro, but I suspect this song will get lost in among all the others.
Denmark bringing something dramatic to the stage. This isn't my favourite song, but it's staged so perfectly. They can be very proud of themselves.
Australia, my other home country: it's certainly a Delta Goodrem song. And of course she's great live. Not my favourite song but she nailed it live, as expected.
Ukraine⌠another slower song with a perfect voice. I suspect it will steal all of Latvia's votes, which is a shame.
This is such a British song; that's either going to help or hinder it in the final, I'm not sure which. Staging is fun too. I love the crowd interaction!
Damn, Albania, talk about impact! The subtitles help but it's still "wow" without that.
Malta still isn't grabbing me but I do like his voice.
Norway bringing another rock song to close the show: Good looking guy with a great voice and great energy!
And once again I'm late for getting ready for work, so I'm off. Will check on the results later.
Disclaimer: I'm German, living in Australia. These are just my thoughts as I watch.
I love how personable Moldova seem. Sooo catchy and exactly to opening the show needs.
Sweden doesn't hold my attention, sorry.
Holy cow Croatia! Those vocals! Those visuals!
Greece's performance rests on the charisma of the performer. Thankfully Akylas has buckets of charm.
Portugal still puts me to sleep. They looks like 5 guys that just stumbled in off the street.
Georgia won with this running order after Portugal. I still can't decide how I feel about this song. I kind of like it but I don't love it either.
The storytelling in Italy's staging with a guy starting off half-naked and a woman losing clothes that turn into an Italian flag⌠Ha! The dancing is fantastic! This song has grown on me.
Finland are pitch perfect. Still don't know how I feel about the song.
Montenegro - This song has grown on me. I kind of love it and her voice is amazing.
I like that Estonia leaned into the rock aspects of the song because there's not a lot of rock this year. Ouch on the vocals though. I agree with Danny Estrin: Guilty pleasure song.
Okay, I fell asleep again during Israel. This early morning broadcast in Australia is brutal to slow songs.
I hate Germany's song, but the staging is perfect. Sarah Engels is clearly a great live singer too. The commentators here in Australia said Germany's pyro-budget was astronomical and it shows.
Toilet break!
Yes! I made it back on time!
I like Belgium's snow effect. I dislike the song but Essyla's voice is great.
Lithuania - the Silver Man! I love that Lithuania always send interesting songs, even if I don't like them in a traditional sense.
San Marino does nothing for me. Sorry. I don't know why; there's nothing really wrong with the song, it just leaves me cold. Oh well.
Poland⌠this music is not my thing, but I'm glad a song like this is here. The more genres in the competition, the better.
Serbia!!! I always love me some metal! Yes! Okay, I'm wide awake now.
And now I need to go to work, I'll catch up with results later.
Ye knowe eek, that in forme of speche is chaunge
With-inne a thousand yeer, and wordes tho
That hadden prys, now wonder nyce and straunge
Us thinketh hem; and yet they spake hem so,
And spedde as wel in love as men now do.
glossary:
eek also
and even
tho at the time
prys great value
wonder a cause for astonishment
nyce stupid
spedde succeeded
You know the form of language, too, can change.
Within a thousand years, even the words
that were most precious then, seem strange
and foolish to us; yet they spoke them so
and did no worse in love than we now do.
Cute observation weâve probably made before: European languages approaching the problem of naming a dragonfly.
French, German, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Polish, Greek, Romanian: it has wonderful balance, so we will sensibly name it âlevelâ - as in âď¸, balance. Itâs so rare that all of us come to such a nice consensus. Hopefully itâs not because, like, English rode in roughshod and -
English, spitting: dragonfly
French, German, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Polish, Greek, Romanian and a whole host of others: normally youâre more with us than everyone else - did you ⌠get that from the celts, orâŚ?
Welsh: no. Fuckoff. snakeâs servant
Irish - BIG NEEDLE
Basque, supportively - witchâs needle!
Swedish - trollâs spindle
Norwegian - eye sticker
Danish - goldsmith
Croatian - fairyâs horse
Finnish: wolfâs rod (?)
Hungarian - sieve-knitter
Turkish - little Joseph đ
Iâd like to study the rest of the world, and ask a few languages some probing questions, but thereâs never enough time.
Yes, when the original post is deleted from the server (not just the blog, but the Tumblr servers), there is no root post for notes to be added onto, and also no root post for time to be counted from, so it starts from zero. Most computer operating systems use Unix, which was launched in 1971 with t.he epoch date of midnight on January 1, 1970 as 1. Therefore zero is one second behind that date: December 31, 1969. Also, very unfortunately, this also means nobody except you and anyone you reblog it to will see this explanation, as you cannot open the notes to see comments when there are no notes.
i also want to point out we know it tastes the same even after thousands of years b/c archaeologists who discovered two thousand year old honey tasted it. presumably right after they looked at each other and went âwhat the hell here goes nothingâ
No, no no⌠you identify bone from rock or other substances by touching it to your tongue. If it sticks, itâs bone. The taste itself has nothing to do with it. And most archaeologists wonât lick human bones if they know theyâre human.
âŚand I realize that doesnât actually do much to prove archaeologists arenât freaks.
origamiaround
andulkaphoto
pixelskylines
snowghoul
blakekathryn
