If I must fall, I will rise each time a better man.
@illegiblehandwriting1
title quote from the Stormlight Archive | Call me Illeg (that's a capital i not a lowercase L lmao) | They/them :D | I write Smoke & Ashes on ao3 (updates are SLOW) and some other stuff (see: fourdow bc they make me ill). also I draw sometimes. Expect rambles.
If you've found this blog, welcome in! Call me Illeg (they/them, any): I'll be your yapper this evening. I'm a nonbinary writer, artist, partially-trained musician, and Zelda nerd who primarily writes for Linked Universe, but my interests vary greatly, including but not limited to:
Hollow Knight, Stormlight Archive, Metroid, Unravel 2, Knives Out, Iron Lung, The Fruitless Quests of Nabiu, literature, critical analysis, astronomy/physics, chemistry, tea, speedrunning, fountain pens, coding (though I am the most beginner beginner to ever begin), environmentalism and sustainability, filmmaking, and martial arts. You can basically assume I have a preliminary understanding of most subjects, and if I don't, I'll either ask or do research until I do.
Fair warning: I do not accept any bigotry about ANYONE whatsoever! This includes racism, sexism, homophobia/transphobia, antisemitism, zionism, ableism, or any other type of hatred.
Ao3: Illegible_Handwriting
Writing Archive Tumblr: @inkstains-on-parchment
Tagging organization is below the cut!
Tags I use often:
Original writing: #illeg scribbles
Original drawing: #illeg doodles
Original posts: #chicken scratch
Reblogs: #reblog
Answered asks: #illegible answers
Posts about writing: #writing things
Art references: #REF REF REF
Stuff to save: #save for later
college stories: #illeg's college adventures
Post-specific tags:
The Angstforce: #the angstforce
Links eating battery acid: #the battery question
The Silent Realm post: #silent realms
The Sky, Four, Time successor post: #divorce trio
Fic-specific tags:
I use the name of the fic I'm talking about (no commas, ex. "#there it is again that funny feeling" not "#there it is again, that funny feeling"), but the most common one to see around is certainly #smoke & ashes.
Some notable exceptions include #the lightning fic and #orpheus!shadow
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.
maybe im crazy but there's something i've noticed with how like. both zuko atla and hamlet (hamlet) are male characters whose stories heavily center on their struggles with trauma and guilt, who are shown to be emotional, and who i see running jokes about them being whiny bitchboys whose trauma is something to be mocked, who should've just manned up and quit whining etc etc. do you see what i'm getting at here. like. idk i've just never found it comfortable how people will make a big joke out of zuko's "obsession with honor" when it is, textually and explicitly, about him being literally exiled by his abusive father after being violently hurt by him in public and sent on a suicide mission that represents just how much his father hates him and sees him as a failure.
and people are SO eager to blame hamlet for everything in the play (which is a tragedy, thinks are kind of required to go wrong) meanwhile Claudius, the guy who murdered his brother and basically tells his grieving nephewson that its gay and stupid for him to be mourning his dead father a month after he died because its now his unclefather and motheraunt's wedding, somehow gets off scott free despite being the actual reason for the entire play's plot. you see what i'm getting at here?????
i don't want these male characters to be like, woobified and for people to pretend they've done nothing wrong, to be clear. to do that would be a disservice to these stories which put effort into making them nuanced, rich, and flawed people. but like hmmmm why are people so quick to mock traumatized emotional men for being traumatized and emotional, and specifically insinuate that they would be better people if they stopped being so emotional and affected by the objectively insane shit they are going through.
"I'm all good and ready to lift others up and make them keep going so we can find our missing party member! Just let me stare into the fire for a little bit here because I'm tired and I feel the Big Nothing coming, please hold" Wind buddy that's depression and burnout. And stop holding a staring contest with a dead bokoblin, you're going to ruin your eyesight.
guys don't worry you can put the "blind people might need meta glasses so the privacy invasion is okay" arguments to rest: they fucking suck as accessibility tools LMAO
home so I can elaborate: I tried them on for five minutes. Takeaways:
Guy doing the testing things responded to my concerns about privacy with "yeah, that's entirely fair"
Talking out loud to a pair of glasses feels stupid as fuck even in a room with an audience specifically for testing the glasses. I cannot imagine having to make requests of the glasses in any public space without feeling like a sellout dork on par with cybertruck owners.
Glasses accurately, but inefficiently (and imo insufficiently) described the people I was looking at, by mentioning them one by one, describing everything about their clothing in between. Maybe this is just me, but I feel like "three people standing in front of me" should be the first piece of information, not "a person in front of you with dark hair standing and wearing scrubs and white shoes holding a clipboard. A person to the left of you with long brown hair standing and wearing scrubs and white shoes. A person to the right of you-"
Glasses stop describing any time someone says anything and also, sometimes, if nothing happens at all. The wait time for it to resume is the perfect amount of seconds for it to feel awkward, which is impressive.
Glasses inaccurately described the office / eye test room I was in as a theater storage area, presumably because there was wood in it. Told it to stop doing this when it started describing everything in the room, fairly inaccurately based on this assumption.
Asked it to read a book page for me. Took three attempts at asking for it to do so. Took a picture of the page, processed, read the chapter number and three words, and stopped. Guy said sometimes you have to tell it to continue. Asked it to continue reading. It resumed describing the room from before.
How does anyone use these and think they're cool
I can see them hypothetically being an accessibility tool but honestly only if they had a keypad command input option. Having to state everything aloud is just so awkward, especially at the volume it needs to register. Like I don't want to sit in a nice restaurant and loudly instruct my glasses to read the menu to me just to get a handful of prices and no words. If there were a communication keyboard style mix and match for simple commands (or even just "read", "id", "find (option)") that could be sent and received quietly, maybe. MAYBE. but it utterly failed at the main things a low vision accessibility device is even for. AND they look stupid.
3/10. Accessibility glasses are a good concept but, unfortunately, it's Meta and sucks.
And Wind remains the funniest traumatized little big brother, I love this guy so much. He's like "oh I've got all my shit together, these losers need to catch up" and buddy does NOT have his shit together at ALL. Does he know that? No, of course not. Because he's completely normal, actually. He knows how to communicate lifesaving information, which means he's completely fine, right? Every bad thing that's been going on could be avoided by just TALKING, it's a wonder no one's died yet.
But he's fine, guys. There is literally nothing else wrong with him. He's put together and ready to go save their friend! It's all good, y'all, he's fine 👍
transmeds can fuck off.
Transandrophobes can fuck off.
Transmisogynists can fuck off.
literally any kind of transphobe can fuck off.
I am done pretending you're different
I am done pretending you guys aren't just different versions of the same thing.
you manifest differently BUT YOU'RE THE SAME FUCKING THING: transphobia.
Stop pretending anyone in the trans community has privilege over another (excluding cases like white trans women holding privilege over trans women of color. obviously other matters intersect with this. I'm saying neither trans women nor trans men hold privilege over each other. stop pretending either of us do.)
and if you genuinely think any of that bullshit: fuck you and fuck off
Pleased to report that after a day of this i am not longer craving caper brine and my mouth is not dry as usual. There's some good suggestions in the notes too that I want to try.
-ancient roman posca: water, red or white wine vinegar, honey, salt, herbs (coriander, mint, thyme)
-switchel: water, ginger, vinegar, sweetener, lemon, salt
