Something Catchy

[blackleatherbag]

[maplesynth]

so i spent far too long on this.

for those unaware, the spaghetti wall of letters and numbers is a base64-encoded JPEG image (and not a URL as some guessed). in certain cases when you tried to insert/paste an image into what’s ostensibly a text-only box, this could happen.

the thing that’s bugging me however is that there’s image data there. we have fairly a clear (albeit with JPEG artifacts) screenshot of text that, thanks to how Windows ClearType renders text, each character is identical to each other, that is to say, an uppercase Q will always look more or less pixel-perfect each time, meaning we don’t have to guess what a Q looks like, we simply have to pixel-accurate match it.

as an aside, this is why regular OCR struggles so much with this kind of data retrieval, such as code even when it’s clearer than a physical paper scan. ordinarily, OCR will try to best-guess every single letter because it expects each letter to be slightly different from each other (as would be the unpredictable nature in a scanned document), and on top of that most OCR today will try to autocorrect because it expects the scanned text to contain words in some human written language.

so, all we have to do is make a program to recognize each character and piece back together the whole base64 string, right? well…

first i stitched all 7 images back into a single block of text, observing the consistency of the line spacing. some of the screenshots have little bits of the previous one sticking out of it, which helps with alignment and to make sure they’re in the right order.

after that i had to sample every single letter off this file. this means going around the file and finding one example of each different character we’re trying to identify, saving it as its own separate file so that the program can load them as references to compare against in the full image. for base64, the alphabet consists of a-z, A-Z, 0-9, +, / and =. once i had the initial code in place…

…close! but oh so far. if any one single character in a base64 string is wrong or missing, the resulting decode will be wrong. the issues i was having were mostly with the lowercase r and j because of how the kerning affected the pixels around those letters. i was also getting false matches for r where there should be an m. what followed was grueling hours of tweaking the matching code and my known font set to better fit the original image and get as close as possible to a 100% match. here is the resulting code, maybe it’ll be useful for someone and this won’t have been a complete waste of time.

once i was confident through the verification image that i had all characters recognized, i put it through a base64 to JPEG decoder. i actually did this several times as i improved the recognition and what follows is the best result that came out of it yet. i suspect some of the data might be missing (perhaps a line or block of text got lost in between screenshots), or i have a wrong character somewhere resulting in a wrong value. this is the image extracted from OP’s base64 string:

we can finally know what they meant when they said “me in a relationship” and i can finally go the fuck to sleep.

[maplesynth]

update: i found that the string that i used to decode the image in the previous reblog actually had one letter wrong.

with this it still doesn’t parse as fully valid base64 in strict mode so i think there’s still another letter in there that’s wrong, but i couldn’t find it. however this gives us a better look:

and this is finally enough to do a reverse image search. i present to you, the HD version of our intrepid massive backpacker:

still have no idea what they mean by “me in a relationship” with that, though.

[almost-correct-quotes]

#they have baggage

[theexhaustedpegion]

magicians

[st-just]

Remember, history was awful. Never trust the romantics.

[booksandchainmail]

#you want to know a sentence that rewrote my brain:#most people have never been 20#more than half of humans ever born never made it to 20#which. is so crushingly sad to me i can't think about it for too long and also weirdly tempering when i'm angry at the state of the world#most people have never been 20! is it any wonder we're bad at being people sometimes! it's so new. we're young to it#anyway#i'm so stupidly grateful to live in the present and for modern medical technology (tags via @thoughtsformtheuniverse)

[zenosanalytic]

XKCD: Degree Off

Never Forget what Childhood Vaccines and Antibiotics have done.

[burninglights]

The two most powerful words in the English language, owed entirely to the efficacy of vaccines, are thus;

“Smallpox was.”

For most of history, smallpox was (!!!) the scourge that haunted human civilisations. We have evidence of smallpox from mummies c. 1350BCE in Egypt. It’s speculated to be one of causative agents of the Plague of Athens c. 430BCE. There were outbreaks of smallpox in Angola in 1484, in South Africa in 1731 that wiped out entire clans of Khoisan people. There was at least one major smallpox epidemic almost every decade across Europe.

Smallpox was transmitted by droplet/aerosol infection; it tore through even the smallest population centres. Typical smallpox incurred a blistering fever, raised pustules, debilitating joint and back pain; if you lived — and that was a fat fucking if, as typical smallpox had a mortality rate of 30% — you’d have tell-tale pockmark scarring, and face stigma for the rest of your life. Some were left blinded.

The worst form of the disease was haemorrhagic smallpox; all the agony of typical smallpox, with the addition of skin haemorrhage and pinpoint haemorrhage in the spleen, liver, kidneys and gonads. Near-universally fatal, haemorrhagic smallpox made up 5-10% of all cases. Of this number, 72% were children.

The global smallpox vaccination campaigns of 1958 to 1977 were a monumental effort by the World Health Organization and its global associates, backed by incredibly diligent public health work and epidemiological monitoring.

Wherever there were outbreaks, there was herd immunisation. Health bodies campaigned tirelessly for the general population to be immunised. In the ‘70s, a concerted effort was made by the WHO to ensure vaccines were administered in the most remote and vulnerable communities in the Horn of Africa, South Asia and the Pacific.

In 1980, the world was officially, finally free of one of it’s oldest adversaries; universal vaccination had been achieved, and there was no population that could act as a reservoir for smallpox.

If mankind has only one great achievement, it’s the smallpox vaccine; to date, smallpox is the only human disease to be completely eradicated.

After over two millennia of suffering, mass disability and death, humanity finally had the means to give one of it’s biggest threats the biggest possible fuck you, and through scientific and public health collaboration, careful epidemiological monitoring and countless hours of on-the-ground vaccination efforts, managed to blot it from existence entirely.

Where there is vaccine coverage, childhood diseases with high morbidity and mortality rates like whooping cough, diphtheria, influenza B and have dropped.

We have vaccines for TB, another of our greatest and longest adversaries.

With enough effort to counter misinformation, more people fighting for vaccine equality, patent free medication for communicable disease, and universal vaccine coverage, and everyone making sure to keep up to date with their vaccinations, one day, we could be fortunate enough to be able to say;

“Tuberculosis was.”

[crazy-pages]

“Smallpox was.”

Fuck. That hit me hard.

[duckbunny]

death and the stars

[hedwig-dordt]

I'm quite fond of the heroes of my field have slain one of the four horsemen of the Apocalypse

[bold-baddie]

[dreamsy990]

i saw someone say nobody needs to know what a .txt file is anymore. what the fuck is the world coming to

[dreamsy990]

unironically i think we need to bring back computer labs because APPARENTLY some people WERENT taught basic computer literacy and internet safety in school

[dreamsy990]

things about computers/the internet i think kids should be formally taught in schools because theyre important to know and the amount of soon to be grown adults i know who know NOTHING about any of these is quite frankly almost all of them (and resources to learn if you dont know these things, because its never to late to get better with computers)

how to troubleshoot by yourself when you have a technical problem

what common file types are

some very basics on how to use ""developer tools"" on your computer (because i cant think of a better way to refer to them) like task manager and command prompt (and their mac equivalents, terminal and activity monitor ofc)

how to read and understand a privacy policy and what your personal data is, as well as what it being collected actually means and steps you can take to keep it private

how to understand terms of service (hey. if you have trouble with reading legalese and worry about being able to understand these policies anyways, here's a site that gives basic summaries of privacy policies and ToS)

what a cookie actually is

internet privacy and your digital footprint!! seriously i dont know why we stopped teaching people that they shouldnt be putting their entire real identity online in a world where your online actions can ruin you irl

basic safety measures like antivirus software (and why you should use it or if the built in one on windows or mac is enough for you) and backing up your computer (also a mac guide)

common keyboard shortcuts (and on mac)

as an additional note: things i think everyone should know on computers and the internet but schools may bit hesitant to teach about for whatever moral/legal standards schools pretend to operate on

vpns and adblockers! (btw for most of these where you can pay for things im purposefully not recommending any specific software but seriously just use ublock origin for an adblocker)

how to not get a virus while pirating something

what a temporary email is and when to use one

red flags that you shouldn't trust a website (and how to quickly check the security of a site)

what javascript on a website does and how to disable it to get around paywalls

[dreamsy990]

ok one last addition! if you want to take it one level higher, i think learning the very basics of at least one programming language is good for people. it makes computers less scary and it makes you feel very cool, and a lot of people get discouraged about it because it seems overly complicated and hard to learn outside a formal classroom setting, so heres some resources for learning the very basics of python (because i consider it the easiest language to learn and knowing one language will make it easier to learn others)

an online compiler so you dont need to download anything or worry about running code directly on your computer if that makes you nervous

a basic video guide to introduce you to python and walk you through beginner steps

a guide to some syntax and commands you should know (this was literally my lifeline in my first CS class)

some performance tasks to give you things to code to practice and assess yourself

[rederiswrites]

There really really ought to be a book about how the staple crops of different civilizations shape and influence those civilizations, and I really want to read it.

[alexseanchai]

Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky and A History of the World in 6 Glasses by Tom Standage (three are alcohol, three have caffeine) are not quite that, but may still be of interest?

[rederiswrites]

I read Salt back in the day and it's so so good, second the rec. I have heard of 6 Glasses and not read it but I am sure I would probably love it. Gotta see if the library has it. Thank you!

[pandorasquillandquotes]

Gonna throw Empire of Cotton by Sven Beckert in the ring here! You'll never see the modern world the same way again.

[vaspider]

A Short History Of The World According To Sheep by Sally Coulthard blew my mind. So many things are tied to wool and sheep and weaving and so many words and phrases are tied to wool, people have no idea.

Example words which come from textiles/weaving, if not specifically wool (go look them up!): subtle, shoddy, tabby, Brazil, rocket, twit, warped, going batty, on tenterhooks, text...

[foxofninetales]

I'll throw in a rec for Pickled, Potted, and Canned by Sue Shephard - a very interesting look at food preservation and how the availability of different types of food preservation shaped cultures and cuisines.

[electronsprotonscroutons]

Sweetness and Power is this but for the topic of sugar

[magneticdeclination]

The Lost Supper: Searching for the Future of Food in the Flavors of the Past might also be up your alley. It's about "forgotten" foods and staples. They talk about different types of wheat, sauces, veggies, etc and a little about the cultures from whence they come

[doctornerdington]

Also: Much Depends on Dinner by Margaret Visser. One of my favourite books.

[bitchwhoyoukiddin]

DO I HAVE A SERIES FOR YOU. University of California Press has a gift for you and it is a 80+ book series on food studies. There are even some that are open access (legally free), but the rest are in libraries.

I also highly recommend Frostbite by Nicola Twilley. It’s about the impact refrigeration has had/is having on food preservation and culture, globally. It was one of my favorite books of this last year.

[calystarose]

Also, The Rice Theory of Culture https://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1172&context=orpc By Thomas Talhelm

[crabussy]

"being a human is so boring why can't I be one of the COOL animals" okay hey. I hear you. but I actually really super love being an omnivorous persistence hunting primate with a stomach capable of dissolving many literal poisons and the ability to smell geosmin (released in the soil after it rains) at five parts per trillion. I super enjoy being a bipedal terrifyingly agile mammal with some of the most efficient sweat glands in the animal kingdom. I find a lot of joy in being an endotherm with mimicry abilities that rival most other animals with vocal chords. it's sick as hell I'm having a lot of fun

[theexhaustedpegion]

Sometimes I get this heavy urges to do something which I have zero knowledge on. I went for playing badminton like this. One day out of the blue, I bought a keyboard (poor man's piano). I have never learned singing or knows anything about music. This was few years ago. Now I am getting an urge to get into fabric. Not just buying fabic and sewing. I want to buy cotton and wool and spin and weave and stich and dye. Mind you, I live in a city in a 1 room kitchen place and work from 9-6. I have never seen a weaving setup in person. Maybe this is what people call as a fool's confidence.

[mentalhellonline]

[literallymechanical]

So one of the funny things about materials science is that Brilluoin zone diagrams for crystal lattices look like they come straight out of a medieval grimoire.

[literallymechanical]

I cast spell of <111> silicon

[crazy-pages]

Check out the x-ray diffraction pattern image of the reciprocal lattice of icosahedrite. Found only at the blast sites of intense meteorite impacts and nuclear bombs.

[literallymechanical]

What the fuck. The only known naturally occurring example is extraterrestrial in origin, it was brought to earth by a meteorite 4.5 billion years ago.

[literallymechanical]

Showed the icosahedrite diffraction pattern to a coworker and she said, verbatim, "what kind of quasicrystal bullshit is this"

[spectros]

Here's the peer-reviewed PNAS article that pentagram picture comes from.

[literallymechanical]

Ok ok I'm taking off my materials science hat and putting on my science communication hat for a sec. I have a Master's in this field but quasicrystals aren't my forte, so apologies to my PhD followers if I'm off-base.

There's a reason we're reacting like this! To a materials scientist it doesn't just look spooky, it looks wrong. Uncanny valley-wrong, like convincing footage of Bigfoot riding the Loch Ness Monster. For the longest time, nobody believed that 5 sides could happen at all. This was assumed to be completely impossible.

Let me tell u about crystals.

A crystal is an ordered arrangement of atoms. Glass is not a crystal, steel is polycrystalline (individual grains are crystals, but they bump up against each other at misaligned boundaries), salt is a crystal, graphite is a crystal.

Crystals have "rotational symmetry," meaning that there is some way to rotate the pattern and lay it back on top of itself to match. Because of Math and Physics, the only possible rotational symmetries you can get in crystals are two-, three-, four-, and six-fold. Think, like, square or triangular or hexagonal grids, but in three dimensions.

The green image five reblogs back is not a picture of individual atoms, but rather something called a diffraction pattern. You can analyze diffraction patterns to learn how the atoms on a crystal's surface are arranged. That pattern tells us that the atoms of crystalline silicon, sliced along a particular angle called the <111> plane, look like this:

Anyway, two- three- four- or six-fold symmetry, that's it. We long believed that a crystal categorically could not have any other type of symmetry. Crystals were also assumed to be "periodic," meaning that they have "translational symmetry" – if you shift the entire lattice in particular directions, you could lay it over itself perfectly. Like if you took a sheet of graph paper (four-fold symmetry) and shifted the whole thing one square to the left, you end up with the same sheet of graph paper.

The ominous red image shows a diffraction pattern with five-fold rotational symmetry, which should be impossible. Except, if you could somehow construct a crystal without translational symmetry, you could make it happen. We didn't discover them until the 1980's, and we call them "quasicrystals."

This is an image of what happens to aluminum-palladium-manganese when you do some insane stuff to it with high pressures and temperatures. The quasicrystal is "aperiodic," with no long-range periodicity, meaning that there is no guaranteed way to shift it and rotate it such that it always lines up with itself again. You can spot some local translational symmetries and repeated structures, but they don't hold up over the whole lattice.

In the 1980's, aperiodic tilings were mostly just a fun trick of mathematics. Very few people believed they could show up in real atomic crystals. The unexpected discovery of quasicrystals in 1982 was so wild that Dan Shechtman, the guy who first described them in a sample of aluminum-manganese, won the Nobel Prize.

That's him on the left explaining quasicrystals to a bunch of incredulous and delighted physicists at NIST. This is what physicists look like when they learn something new and exciting, btw, it's pretty great. I love his mustache.

Anyway since 1982, quasicrystals were known to exist only in two places: laboratories, and "trinitite" – the fused desert sand in New Mexico from the Trinity test, the first atomic bomb. It wasn't until 2010 that we found naturally-formed quasicrystals in that meteorite – icosahedrite, an aluminum-copper-iron mineral.

Here's the other cool bit: Contrary to what you might expect, icosahedrite likely didn't actually form on impact with the ground! Analysis of the isotopes in the sample indicates that the quasicrystal likely formed in deep space and was brought to Earth in this form[1]. Wild!

Fun fact, aperiodic tilings with a limited number of unique tiles are tricky to make, but they show up in sophisticated art from the Islamic golden age. This is a mosaic in the Darb-e Imam shrine in Iran, built in the 15th century:

Neat!

[casperwyomingxer]

I love that the red image isn't just aesthetically unsettling, it is also scientifically unsettling

[a-blessed-feline]

I looked deeper into this all and found a very excellent image of the 2011 expedition to Khatyrka that confirmed that the meteorite was natural in origin

Sadly, I wasn't able to find any info on the indoubtably leading role that this little guy played in the discovery

[mr-something-0r-another]

[theexhaustedpegion]

I think the real spark for revolution will be caused because of a really annoying and stupid leader rather than an evil leader.

[headspace-hotel]

there is so much information that could be collected on plants. im talking root shape and structures, flammability, resprouting capacity, mycorrhizal associations, soil seed bank longevity, pollinators, fungal endophytes, phytochemicals, longevity, pollen distribution range, seed distribution range, decomposition rate of wood, leaf litter volume relative to leaf surface area, but I look it up and all anybody knows is shade tolerance and whether its wetland indicator species

[headspace-hotel]

listen. leaves are so different. beech leaves are going to form a litter layer and compost differently than those big ol' northern red oak leaves. and red maple leaves? get out of my face.

you see, oaks are fire-tolerant species. they got that thick, ridged bark over top of the living part thats carrying the nutrients and water and stuff, so when a fire happens mature oaks are fully unbothered.

Now, oak leaves, when they fall, they don't have a lot of moisture, and all those lobes that make the leaf that funky shape tend to curl up. The leaf curls up, so it doesn't lie flat on the ground, instead the leaves form thick piles that have air spaces in them. This makes the leaf piles drier and means oxygen can circulate. Which means that oak leaf litter, is really fucking flammable.

American sycamore leaves, though. They are huge, and leathery, and curl up into funky shapes, but they don't like to catch fire. Try to set a sycamore leaf on fire with a lighter and it will NOT want to burn! American sycamores are one of the least fire resistant trees. They have thin, brittle bark that can't protect them very much from fire.

American sycamore leaves however take FOREVER to break down and rot. They're one of the most decomposition-resistant leaves. Oaks are up there in terms of decomposition resistance as well. If you want a long-lasting leaf litter layer, sycamore leaves are your friend.

Maple leaves? Maple leaves break down very quickly. No good for building up a lasting leaf litter layer. Chemically, they're pretty allelopathic. They hold a lot of moisture, in keeping with the lack of fire resistance. A maple leaf pile is likely to be wet.

Hackberry leaves? They get so brittle they crumble away really fast. Hackberry doesn't seem to have a whole lot of leaf biomass. Tulip poplar leaves? They're thick and huge, but I don't know about their flammability. Elm leaves? Depends on the elm, slippery elm makes pretty good leaf litter. Dogwood leaves? They have a lot of calcium in them, according to my friend who studies snails. Cherry leaves? All I know about those is that they're small, and that's true of a lot of trees that people plant for ornamental reasons, their leaves are just small in terms of surface area. Which means the leaf litter doesn't have a lot of volume, which means it's kind of shit at forming a leaf litter layer, which I guess is what people want, with their lawns and all that.

On that note, people seem to want trees in their yard to never drop twigs or sticks or nuts or anything, which is really sad, because fine woody debris is important for keeping fungi in the ecosystem, and the nuts and seeds and berries and stuff are what feeds the wildlife.

I went to a talk the other day and the guy said something about lawns that was really interesting. He said that because grass is made mostly of cellulose, it is primarily broken down by bacteria, so a grass lawn has mainly bacteria as decomposers. Plants with woody tissue, however, contain a lot of lignin, which basically only fungi can break down. So, in an ecosystem where there's wood and sticks and logs lying around, there are fungi as well as bacteria.

Now think of how many soil organisms are feeding upon the fungi, and how many fungi form mycorrhizae with plants, and the effects that fungi have upon soil structure. What effects do these fungi have upon fungi that are plant pathogens? Another thing I found out, a lot of fungi that are plant pathogens, are also the main genera that cause negative impacts upon human health.

There is too much to study!

[catchymemes]

[vtmb2spoilers-deactivated202112]

hope u dont mind me keeping ur tags because ur right:

[calmdowncalmdown]

I’ll reblog this every time I see it.

[funkylittlebats]

[ID: a reddit post from Marylandman101.

what does it feel like to do heroin

A reply from [deleted]

Actually this is an obvious question but it’s not what you might think. Let me explain it to you, I’ve been an opiate addict for a long time and tried many drugs. Drugs that are ‘uppers’ have the most ‘obvious’ euphoria. For example if you take adderall/coke/meth/speed/MDMA you will get this shining bright euphoria, self confidence, energy, and other drug-specific feelings (for meth like you are king or for MDMA like you love everyone). However, you owe these drugs back what they delivered to you. After a meth binge, or lots of MDMA use, or staying up all night on coke you will feel like shit. To an extent this aspect is similar to an alcoholic hangover.

On the other hand, for many people who experiment with heroin they are underwhelmed (not including IV usage, but most experimenters rarely ever IV first time). They just feel good, chill, happy, but they feel like this spooky drug ‘heroin’ hasn’t delivered. They are just mellow. Oh obviously it has all been a lie they will think. Heroin isn’t spooky, it’s chill. It’s not addictive like everyone else thinks. It doesn’t make you do stupid shit or stay up all day and hallucinate like amphetamines or coke. It doesn’t empty your serotonin like MDMA or give you a hangover like alcohol. People tend to just think oh, what a nice drug.

So the next day they wake up and everything is normal. No headache or shitty feeling–just a slight afterglow of that nice feeling. Oh it was cheap as well! It only cost $10 for a whole night of being high! I thought people said heroin was expensive? And then next weekend comes… There are all these drugs I could do but I liked heroin. It didn’t fuck me up,‘I could still think clearly. No hangover. No feeling like shit later. I still was awake. It just made me happy and content with life. Oh and it’s only $10! Well, I should get some more for the whole weekend. This is great! I will use Heroin on the weekends now!

Now let’s say this person works and has responsibilities. He knows he can’t go into work drunk, or on MDMA, or high. So he doesn’t. It’s actually simple. But heroin… Well the user might actually find they do better work on heroin. Instead of being sad or grumpy or depressed with his job… he is just… happy. Mellow. Content. Everything is fine and the world is beautiful. It’s raining, it’s dark, I woke up at 5:30AM, I’m commuting in traffic. I would have had a headache, I would have been miserable, I would have wondered how my life took me to this point. This point I’m at right now. But no, no, everything is fine. Life is beautiful. The rain drops are just falling and in each one I see the reflection of every persons life around me. Humanity is beautiful. In this still frame shot of traffic on this crowded bus I just found love and peace. Heroin is a wonder drug. Heroin is better than everything else. Heroin makes me who I wish I was. Heroin makes life worth living. Heroin is better than everything else. Heroin builds up a tolerance fast. Heroin starts to cost more money. I need heroin to feel normal. I don’t love anymore. Now I’m sick. I can’t afford the heroin that I need. How did $10 used to get me high? Now I need $100. That guy that let me try a few lines the first time doesn’t actually deal. Oh I need to find a real dealer? This guy is a felon and carries a gun–he can sell me the drug that lets me find love in the world. No this isn’t working, I need to quit.

To answer your question, heroin feels nice. That’s all, it just feels very nice. You can make the rest up for yourself. Attach your own half-truths to this drug that will show you the world and for a moment you will feel as clever as Faust.

Edit: Thank you for the kind words. I received help and I’m doing well now. Luckily I was able to pull up and get help right before I entered the deadly downward spiral. Some of my friends have not done as well. Sorry to steal the limelight from OP

A reply to this from Ifuxdalion

Reading that was more haunting than any anti-drug campaign that I’ve been exposed to. Thanks. A lot.

End of reddit post.

The third image are tags on tumblr. They read #anti-drug campaigns should be run by recovering addicts #cause like #how are you gonna talk honestly about how a drug affects your life if youve never done it #how can you really communicate what it does to your life if you ignore the reasons people do drugs in the first place? #i dont think anyone’s gonna believe you when you say a drug is bad if you never acknowledge the way the drug makes you feel good #tags

End ID]

[robotlyra]

The thing that kills me about this, is that it frankly discusses the general misery and malaise that we put up with in our regular sober lives, and it says straight up that the drug makes it BEARABLE. This is the clearest and most straightforward description of “drug addiction is not a failure of personal strength and character, it is an attempt to medicate and make survivable the horrifying sociocultural conditions that we are being forced to accept as the normal cost of living.” It’s the Rat Park drug addiction hypothesis demonstrated in humanity.

[theexhaustedpegion]

#never did drugs #not planning to ever

[spinabifidaoccultist-deactivate]

Sewing tips

Wax: Thread wax or thread conditioner. I use beewax or thread magic. It makes cheap thread glide like the expensive ones. I am an old punk so ive done lots of hand sewing for patches and the standby is to use waxed dental floss to sew on patches since it doesn't snag or break so easy. This is the same principal but now any thread will work. Wax makes working with thicker thread so easy. For hand sewing, just drag your thread over the wax (I've used candle wax for patch sewing). Some places say to iron your thread after, but I've never done that. For sewing machines, they make wax that attaches to the top of your machine so the thread glides over it as you sew.

Washi Tape: if you put washi tape down your traced pattern lines (on the fabric), just inside where you need to cut, it will keep the material from fraying. It also makes it easier to cut out silky or thin fabrics. Frayed fabric leaves all those little hanging-off threads at your hems and it’s a mess. If you use a good washi tape, there is no residue. You can even sew over it and not remove it until the end. It is fantastic for hems. Washi tape is going to give you a definite location for your hems and gives you a straight edge to follow. I've also used painters tape.

Seam Ripper: Flip the seam ripper over, put the ball tip in the seam and then push the tool through the stitches, quickly cutting them. *Caution – don’t use this part of the technique on delicate fabrics. It’s too easy to tear holes in them doing this. It is fine on most cottons and denims. The point is for picking out individual stitches, tight stitches, or difficult ones.

Gutermann thread: The spool opens to hold a needle. There is a myth that it comes with a needle included. None of mine has ever come with one.

Ribbon Fraying: quickly run a flame across the end of the ribbon to eliminate the fraying.

Lock your stitches: reverse sew at the beginning and end of each seam to lock your stitches in place to prevent them from unraveling once the threads are snipped.

Pins: Use a magnet to collect them. I use a magnetic bowl from harbor freight. It's cheaper than the sewing specific ones and you can rubber coat them or cover them in fabric if you want to protect your pin tips.

Thread Cutter: Many machines come with a thread cutter on the machine. But if your machine doesn't you can buy a stick on one. They are convenient but not a necessity.

Magnetic Seam Guides: tool that attaches to any stitch plate of a sewing machine, near the presser foot. The magnet helps the fabric that is pulled forward by your sewing machine to stay firmly in place, giving you a solid, reliable guide for setting seam allowances and sewing straight lines.

Seam Guide Ruler: a small ruler used to mark an accurate seam allowance.  Place the Seam Guide under the presser foot and lower the needle through the appropriate hole in the guide.  Video reference here.

Sewing Needles: I have a whole post here but the basics are

Universal – no color code

Ball point – medium blue

Jersey – orange or light brown

Stretch – Yellow

Jeans – dark blue

Microtex – purple

Leather – brown

Universal twin – red shaft

Stretch twin – blue shaft

Quilting – green

Glues: Huge time saver.

Fray check: A permanent, clear liquid seam sealant that prevents fabric from fraying and secures thread ends; Use to finish raw edges of ribbon, trim and fabric. It soaks into fabric.

Fabri-tac: won't soak into fabrics, which can cause discoloration or damage to the fabric. Instead, it creates a strong, permanent bond on the surface of the fabric. This makes it a great option for attaching embellishments like rhinestones, sequins, ribbons, or beads to fabric.

Original Gutermann HT2: designed specifically for use with fabrics and is ideal for attaching patches to clothing, bags, and other fabric items. It's a great choice for attaching patches to fabrics that will be washed or worn frequently. The glue is also resistant to heat and cold, making it suitable for use in a variety of different environments. It is a bit expensive but it is worth it imo.

Aleene's: I love Aleene's they always perform well for the affordable price. They have a wide variety of glues and adhesives. They even make fabric glue sticks.

Dritz Original Liquid Stitch: Dries clear but applies white. It takes 24 hours for it to full cure but once it does its flexible.

SpraynBond Quilt Basting Adhesive Spray: It forms a temporary bond between the batting and the fabric when quilting so that you don’t need to baste the quilt before you stitch. Unlike traditional adhesives, which can leave a residue on the fabric, spray glue dries clear and leaves no residue. I have also used this for backpatches. it washes out.

Happy Halloween Sewists!

[raymondshieldsofficial]

have you lot heard about the tiktoker who’s taking on the actual government over a parking ticket? because she’s a hero

[raymondshieldsofficial]

her name is Zoë Bread and she doesn’t show her face, and she’s a British artist whose videos are basically her fucking with people in harmless ways - like, asking retail workers if they want an “official” picture of King Charles that is in fact a cartoon and filming their bewilderment (the person is never in the video; she films the floor and her shoes while she’s doing this). she also calls up companies who have stuff like “call us to talk about [X]!” written on their products to see if they’ll really talk to her about [X] and if the person at the call centre doesn’t know (“full unedited silence” is a feature in most of her videos), she will dig and dig until she finds someone who can. or, until she gets bored, which. fair. can’t fault that.

I’m currently trying to get a member of the british peerage to give me £50 because we’re distant cousins. I appreciate her.

she travels around for these videos and one day she went to Manchester and parked on a road called Collier Street.

Collier Street has (or had, at the time) another car park at the end of it - the SIP car park. SIP is a private company that runs these. the signage on Collier Street indicated that the payment machine there was where you’re supposed to pay, so Zoë and a fuckload of other people assumed that that was where you got the tickets. Zoë put it on her car and went about fucking with whoever she decided to confuse today

she gets back to her car, has a parking ticket, and is confused

again - she paid for a ticket. she wasn’t trying to get out of paying.

because she’d bought a ticket from the machine that the SIP car park instead of the council run machine that is actually on a different road, she’d been ticketed. and, rightly so, she contests it and the person at the council says that the rules are the rules and there’s clear signage

Zoë: the signage is misleading

council: we don’t believe it is

Zoë: well, I was misled

council: we believe the signage is adequate

Zoë, being Zoë, doesn’t agree with this. she pulls up literal years’ worth of data on the history of that sign, the parking on the road, and the number of people who got ticketed. very early on, she says she’s not actually bothered about her own ticket, but she’s upset that people are being caught out and sees that it’s a money-making scheme for the council. she speaks to parking wardens, who mostly seem to agree that the signage is misleading. she has data. she calls them back. same response.

Zoë, being an artist, makes her own sign. which she puts up below the official one. and then she waits to see how long it is before it’s taken down.

[note: there was a side quest sometime during this - it went on for months - where she put cones in the parking spaces. the council moved them onto the pavement/sidewalk. this made it inaccessible for wheelchair users, people with prams, other people who can’t just move around them, which is illegal. so she called the council repeatedly to complain about the cones and monitored them until they were moved. this took ages - we are talking weeks.]

Zoë’s sign gets taken down.

the signpost it was attached to, with the misleading sign, becomes a point of pilgrimage for British people who appreciate a good bit of humour with the intent of bullying the local government. it is COVERED in stickers.

her sign is taken down. the sign is not changed. more people get tickets.

[there was a second side quest, where Zoë discovers that the SIP car park - the private one - doesn’t have planning permission. she doesn’t let this slide.]

not happy with this, Zoë calls in to the local radio station. which has a Q&A with Andy Burnham. the Mayor of Manchester. she calls in and asks him about this. Andy Burnham says he’s taking her concern into consideration and will look into it, and get back to her if she calls in next week.

she’s not put through next week.

she contacts his office.

no response.

she calls in again and brings it up.

[all this is happening while she’s repeatedly ringing the council to ask them about it]

she has gone from “harmless tiktok prankster” to “calling out government incompetence”. with a MASSIVE platform.

eventually, after her being interviewed by the BBC, Manchester City Council puts up a sign saying where the actual car park for Collier Street is (there is a running bit where a council worker misheard her and thought she said “Collyhurst Street”, which to my knowledge does not exist. Zoë now exclusively refers to it as that, including in her radio appearance and on her phone calls)

she isn’t done. she now has a petition to force the government to change vague signage. the government said no, all their signage is adequate. she’s now fighting with them. in one of her most recent videos, she was on the phone with the House of Commons enquiry department trying to figure out how to contest it. she’s brilliant.

anyway, this is why the art of Fucking About must never be lost. big up Zoë

[dispatchesfromtheclasswar]

[biglawbear]

Good for this person. This is exactly what you do. Screw the job.

I had a job that made me work an all nighter, 30 hours straight, over Thanksgiving. I resigned that Monday and it was one of the most satisfying decisions I’ve ever made.

[running-in-the-dark]

Part 3:

[invaderxan]

Please pay attention to all the manipulation tactics this boss uses, because they’re pulling out every trick in the book.

“I’m not your boss, I’m your friend”

“Other people will be hurt by this and it’s your fault and I’m going to tell them all that”

Mocking language

Jobs are important too

“Be a team player”

“We’re your family too”

Talking as if this is a thing you must do

“We all make sacrifices”

Undermining your authority

“You caused all of this, really”

Accusing you of being “unprofessional”

“Look at the money you cost us”

“Just laugh it off and come back to work”

This is like a 101 course in how employers use guilt trips to coerce you into putting up with their bullshit. This is precisely why you should never trust those employers who insist that they’re “like a family.” They are not. It’s just a ruse so that your boss can neg you into putting your job ahead of your actual life.

[nudityandnerdery]

Also the big one: “Answer your phone” or “Call us” so that whatever happens isn’t documented in text.

[ms-demeanor]

When I was like twelve my dad asked me if I wanted to get something that was trendy at the time - I want to say it was something like a jacket or shoes or something - and I was totally perplexed, I had no idea why he thought I'd want the thing, so I asked him and he said he'd heard from his students that it was popular and if I wanted it for my birthday we could get one and I still didn't understand and he said something like 'well if the popular kids like it maybe it could help you be more popular' because earlier that week in PE some kids intentionally tackled me so hard while playing touch football that I tore my ACL and had to go to the emergency room.

And, like, my parents were utterly delusional about the amount that I was bullied and who did the bullying, but it was very very clear to me at the time that ownership of the popular item was not the thing that was making the other kids not like me and there was no amount of popular item that was going to make the other kids like me - in fact the next year it became so obvious that there was NOTHING that was going to make the other kids like me, there was no way I could play the game correctly, so I might as well entertain myself by making them dislike me for weirder reasons.

And pretty much ever since then any time there's a fad or a fashion trend I end up looking at it going ?????????? Is this a thing that can make you popular???? Is not having this thing something that can make you unpopular?????????? Would kids be mean to each other over the lack of this thing????????????????

And I suspect there is a subset of kids who are on the borderlands of peer acceptance who can use "ownership of popular item" to solidify their social position but it is so obviously a contrived and arbitrary reason to accept or reject someone from your social circle that it was honestly kind of a relief to know that getting an ipod wasn't going to fix any of my problems.

But being an adult and seeing other adults get in on the same kind of trend has always confused me because ???????? They're adults? Sure social media exists now but your social standing should have everything to do with who you are and nothing to do with what brand of bracelet or water bottle or keychain you have?????????? So why is the thing. WHat is driving the need for the thing?????? How did they find out about the thing and why do they want it or seven of it? Do they buy every one of the things when there's a new thing???? What determines which thing is the thing that clicks for them?????????

Watching this no-buy youtuber has been interesting because she seems to genuinely struggle with not hopping on trends and she is influenceable in a way that seems fascinating to me; she has talked about how she would want to buy some makeup or a specific meme sweater or a phone case to fit in but to fit in with whom????? The people around her IRL? People on the internet? Coworkers? Family? Friends? Who are your friends as an adult who would make you feel pressured to fit in? Are these friends of your choosing? Is this a self-imposed desire to be cool? To 'act normal' and that's the only way you define normal????????

I actually suspect that she and I have similar flavors of neurodivergence happening but that we evolved wildly opposing coping mechanisms to deal with being noticeably different than our peers as children.