everything old is new again

tiny sideblog \\ ...💜... // by inclines

[sdwolfpup]

More Joy Day 2025 is coming!

That's right, I actually planned ahead this year. Watch out world!

The 18th More Joy Day will be January 10th, 2025.

What is More Joy Day? In short it's this:

Every year since 2008, in the interest of spreading more joy, I’ve proposed that on a designated day in early January we each engage in one act, either online or physical space (or both!), which brings joy to another person, in the hopes that that person will spread that joy further, and exponentially onward.

This act can be as simple as leaving a comment on a fanwork to as complicated as planting a tree or flower in someone's honor and sharing a photo of it and why you chose that person. If you want the longer version (and more suggestions) you can check out this post from 2024 which provides both.

I'll have at least one more reminder before the day, so start thinking about how you're going to spread some joy.

[sdwolfpup]

A gentle reminder that More Joy Day is in two (?!?!) weeks. I don't know how this happened because it feels like it was just the beginning of December but now it is nearly the end of December and my calendar reminder to remind everyone (including myself) about MJ Day popped up. I should start thinking about what I'm going to do heh.

Here are some ideas from previous years:

Write a ficlet, make a podcast, make a vidlet, or make a fanart for someone.

Buy someone paid discord or tumblr or Dreamwidth time.

Leave someone a nice comment on their work.

Say something nice about someone.

Say something nice about something fannish you love and encourage squee.

Donate five dollars to the charity of someone’s choice.

Send flowers to an online friend in a different city.

Buy someone you know a present.

Plant a tree or a flower in someone’s honor and take a picture of it and post it.

When somebody cuts you off on the road, wish them well and hope they get where they’re going safely.

Make somebody a friendship bracelet. Or a construction paper heart.

Call someone you love and tell them so.

Buy someone lunch.

Give a stranger a compliment.

Put up a Zoom background celebrating the person you’re talking to.

The only limit is your imagination (and time. and money. STILL). Have fun with it!

[theprofessional-amateur]

Well played Merriam-Webster.

“There is artificial intelligence, and there is actual intelligence” 🎤🫳

[theprofessional-amateur]

[redlipstickresurrected]

Stephen Vollo (American) - Strainer, Paintings: Oil on Canvas on Panel

[alex51324]

I used to have that exact strainer. It was in a box of hand-me-down kitchen things from my grandmother when I got my first apartment in 1996. It broke last year.

Anyway, this is a painting.

[sexshopshenanigans]

This is the best strainer in the world and i check the housewares aisle in every thrift store I visit hoping to find another one. No strainer has ever been able to live up to this icon, this superstar, this vision of grace and elegance.

It’s the two-quart Tupperware colander. The handle is large and sturdy but still comfortable to hold in your hand. The ridge on the end helps it fit on any size pot you need to rest it over. The little feet at the bottom let you drain directly into the sink without leaving the contents sitting in a puddle. It’s got a spout on both sides so you can pour comfortably from the left or right hand, towards or away from yourself as needed. The holes are at the bottom so you can control where strained liquids flow, large enough to drain quickly, small enough to keep from losing bits of food through them. The bright yellow colour is easy to spot in the back of a cupboard or dishwasher.

I am passionate about this specific strainer in a way that I am not passionate about anything else in my life. I would run back into a burning building to rescue this strainer. This strainer is my go-to wedding or housewarming gift. This strainer is my beloved family member. I have shared more meals with this strainer than I have with anyone else in my life. This strainer has never, ever let me down. It is the most perfectly designed item I have ever seen or handled in my life. Every aspect of this strainer is made to maximize convenience and functionality. It is flawless, a form of complete and total perfection. If you told me this strainer was the face of God, recreated on Earth in Their image, I would believe you.

Anyway, this is the best painting I’ve ever seen and they should take down the Mona Lisa so there’s an appropriate space to hang it in the Louvre.

[marlynnofmany]

Thank you for that eloquent review to go along with this impressive painting!

If anyone else is inspired to look up the two-quart Tupperware colander, I'll save you a few keystrokes. Amazon has in stock (in several colors, no less). I imagine some other stores do as well.

Anyways, I already have two metal colanders that make a horrible mess every time they're used, and I'm gonna buy myself a blue one of these. Thanks!

[homunculus-argument]

A good rule of thumb for AI is "would you trust a trained pigeon to do this?"

"We trained a pigeon to recognise cancerous cell clusters and somehow they're really good at it" okay great, that's something that could plausibly be a thing.

"We trained a pigeon to recognise good CV:s and left it in charge of sorting through all our job applications" uh perhaps consider not doing that.

[alboardman]

050325. Infantilism.

[this-girl-loves-images]

Technology transparent PNGs

free 2 use

[mossyshadows]

richard siken new afterword to crush 20th anniversary edition. will text ID it later i just wanted to yoink this from twitter his formatting was ass

[makrustic]

Keeping Out Burnout 'Things get hard to juggle when it burns your hands' Prints | Ko-fi | Patreon | Bluesky

[captainkirkk]

BIG fan of Murderbot having a terrifying lawyer in the form of Pin-Lee. Murderbot has always legally been equipment and is used to being taken advantage of by humans. Sure, it's not afraid to tell humans no or make things difficult simply because it wants to, but when it comes to asking for basic rights and advocating for itself? It has no experience. It's never had rights before.

But Pin-Lee WILL make sure Murderbot is legally protected as a worker and will make life difficult for everyone (including MB) if that doesn't happen

[captainkirkk]

#pin Lee putting clauses in murderbot’s contracts that don’t differentiate between it and its clients in terms of safety measures also#using her badass lawyering skills to curb even murderbot’s level of flawed self preservation abilities#by valuing it and considering it equal in a contract in regards that murderbot wouldn’t even think to consider#like yes murderbot doesn’t have to and won’t just do what a client tells it to do anymore#but that doesn’t stop its risk assessment module from being like it’ll be safest for my clients if I go into the deadly torment nexus alone#pin Lee out here spraying murderbot like a naughty cat with a spray bottle full of legalese to manifest even a modicum of self preservation#and then bringing down the hammer of the law on corporation rim fucks and anyone who tries to casually objectify murderbot alike#that’s HER client your honor and it may be a murderbot but she’ll make you wish you were dead if you disrespect its workers rights#shes terrifyingly competent and I love how much murderbot clearly admires her for it also (@liarina)

Pin-Lee shaking a newly drafted contract at Murderbot: YOU HAVE RIGHTS AS A PERSON AND THAT'S A THREAT

[mortimermcmirestinks]

people keep trying to make "ladies and gentlemen" more inclusive.

I think we should go the other way around.

make more and more weird false dichotomies in greetings. "gamers and pianists". "oil painters and swordsmen". "vexillologists and entomologists". "chess masters and diamond artificers". "accountants and gendered individuals".

we need to be dropping shit into formal meetings to make people say "wait what? which one am I?"

[lovetheirloves]

I have started referring to my students as “critters and creatures.” I then offer them the option to decide where on the critter–creature spectrum they think they belong. They enjoy this immensely. I teach some critters, some creatures, some 50/50s, some critters with creature tendencies, some creatures with critter inclinations.

[h-widit]

Orange // Requested

I don’t own or take any credit for any of these pictures.

[imissthembutitwasntadisaster]

And if I said Megamind is one of the few movies that understands Superman.

[imissthembutitwasntadisaster]

And if I said Megamind through its three subversions of Superman shows a deeper understanding that the point of Superman is that he was loved and taught to love by good, present parents, and because of that he is able to return that love to a world even if it doesn't always accept it, and he is not corrupted by his power, than many other films either subverting or playing the superman story straight.

[imissthembutitwasntadisaster]

Megamind has three Superman subversions. One is obviously Megamind himself. He was not raised loved by the world, but rather was loved by those hated by the world. Because he was still raised with love, he does care about other people, hence his character development. But because he didn't receive wider love growing up, his own is misplaced at first.

Metro Man was not loved growing up in a way that mattered. His adopted father was clearly very absent, and while we don't know much about his family, their relationship seems superficial. Because of this, his sense of duty to the world is also superficial, hence his boredom.

Hal wasn't raised with power. He gained it and was shown how to use it by a 'space dad' who only taught him power and not love. Hence, he sees it only as a grasping means to an end.

All three of these subversions, in their negative space, create the silhouette of the superhero that they are parodying. That silhouette is of a space child that came to earth and was cared for very deeply by the world, and taught love through his experience of love, and because of that holds fast to his duty to the world. Which is Superman.

[anidala-for-ever]

I want this person and this person only writing and directing Superman movies for the rest of my life

[guardianofscrewingup]

Megamind's great because of this and its blending of fun villain stuff. The "villain with STYLE!" thing, and anti-villain on villain conflict is great.

But yes, it's so obvious it's all a thing examining Superman, up to and including the love interest being a fearless, sassy brunette reporter that's never phased by Megamind kidnapping her.

At it's heart, it really is a nature vs. nurture sort of story, where the situation winds up a little dysfunctional by virtue of any Kents being missing.

I'm actually cowriting a ya series about kids in a supervillain school and a big part of it is the MC, Amit, was raised by villains who weren't really excessively violent and treated him with love, even if they're pressuring a little too hard to enter the family business.

And it means, despite their villainy, he's the most well-adjusted kid in the group. He's not perfect but he still winds up being the one that pushes the others a bit to work past various traumas and become better while they fight to save the world.

A big chunk of the story is about the labeling of kids as "bad" kids and how it's a self-fulfilling prophecy, and Megamind was one of the direct inspirations. (That and Marvel's Runaways and Sky High.

Megamind absolutely sort of exemplifies how labeling can negatively effect someone but at least the prisoners seem to have looked out for him, making it easier for him to push himself past it.

And it's great how alongside Roxy it's even Metro Man himself that helps remove the label. Someone "good" who has history with him that felt obligated to stop him, and obligated to keep up a mask and play the part, already thought there was good in him well before the movie. Now that Metro Man's stepped out of the way to focus on his own life, there's room for that goodness in Megamind to come out.

Combined with the prisoners treating him well, when Megamind finally gets more of that Kent-like support - and it helps undo that label - he's able to become a hero.

[abigailspinach]

[the1920sinpictures]

1927 Kodak Petite Cameras. From Art Deco 1920, FB.

[wilderbas]

green is for emotional stability | besties

[valencians]

the people of omelas have a moral obligation to bring as much of the surrounding territories under the banner of their city-state as possible, by force if necessary, lest the maximal utility of the suffering child go to waste

[specialagentartemis]

I deeply appreciate that Dr. Mensah Goes To Therapy For The Whole “Being Kidnapped And Almost Murdered” Thing is an important plot point depicted with sympathy and emotional weight

but can you IMAGINE being her therapist

Therapist: it’s in the past. The corporate powers can’t reach you on Preservation. Your reactions are designed to keep you alive and aware of it happening again, but they take root even where they are no longer needed; process them, thank them, and let them know they can’t harm you. Know that you are safe, Preservation is safe, and it won’t happen again. You can be able to say, is this fear supported by my present reality? No one is going to get kidnapped.

Mensah: hang on I’m getting a call I have to take this

Mensah:

Mensah: my daughter, my brother-in-law, and several of my friends just got kidnapped by murderous raiders

Therapist: