#bc for example

[tumblasha]

and pls tell me abt any factors that lead to ur answer(s)! v curious

[wizardnuke]

"i hate microlabels" yeah i also kind of dislike the idea of putting ourselves and our identities into very specific boxes, i think it can be really isolating- ohh wait you mean you think they're invalid. ohh no that's not the way to look at it. killing you

[aphel1on]

i have such a love for characters who descend into madness or villainy out of deep, deep empathy. characters who fundamentally cannot cope with the cruel realities they find themselves in and blow up about it in spectacular fashion. fallen angel type characters with tears of outrage in their eyes. characters who break before they bend, and break so badly they splatter blood all over their noble ideals. every variation on it gets me so good

[inkskinned]

i have chronic pain. i am neurodivergent. i understand - deeply - the allure of a "quick fix" like AI. i also just grew up in a different time. we have been warned about this.

15 entire years ago i heard about this. in my forensics class in high school, we watched a documentary about how AI-based "crime solving" software was inevitably biased against people of color.

my teacher stressed that AI is like a book: when someone writes it, some part of the author will remain within the result. the internet existed but not as loudly at that point - we didn't know that AI would be able to teach itself off already-biased Reddit threads. i googled it: yes, this bias is still happening. yes, it's just as bad if not worse.

i can't actually stop you. if you wanna use ChatGPT to slide through your classes, that's on you. it's your money and it's your time. you will spend none of it thinking, you will learn nothing, and, in college, you will piss away hundreds of thousands of dollars. you will stand at the podium having done nothing, accomplished nothing. a cold and bitter pyrrhic victory.

i'm not even sure students actually read the essays or summaries or emails they have ChatGPT pump out. i think it just flows over them and they use the first answer they get. my brother teaches engineering - he recently got fifty-three copies of almost-the-exact-same lab reports. no one had even changed the wording.

and yes: AI itself (as a concept and practice) isn't always evil. there's AI that can help detect cancer, for example. and yet: when i ask my students if they'd be okay with a doctor that learned from AI, many of them balk. it is one thing if they don't read their engineering textbook or if they don't write the critical-thinking essay. it's another when it starts to affect them. they know it's wrong for AI to broad-spectrum deny insurance claims, but they swear their use of AI is different.

there's a strange desire to sort of divorce real-world AI malpractice over "personal use". for example, is it moral to use AI to write your cover letters? cover letters are essentially only templates, and besides: AI is going to be reading your job app, so isn't it kind of fair?

i recently found out that people use AI as a romantic or sexual partner. it seems like teenagers particularly enjoy this connection, and this is one of those "sticky" moments as a teacher. honestly - you can roast me for this - but if it was an actually-safe AI, i think teenagers exploring their sexuality with a fake partner is amazing. it prevents them from making permanent mistakes, it can teach them about their bodies and their desires, and it can help their confidence. but the problem is that it's not safe. there isn't a well-educated, sensitive AI specifically to help teens explore their hormones. it's just internet-fed cycle. who knows what they're learning. who knows what misinformation they're getting.

the most common pushback i get involves therapy. none of us have access to the therapist of our dreams - it's expensive, elusive, and involves an annoying amount of insurance claims. someone once asked me: are you going to be mad when AI saves someone's life?

therapists are not just trained on the book, they're trained on patient management and helping you see things you don't see yourself. part of it will involve discomfort. i don't know that AI is ever going to be able to analyze the words you feed it and answer with a mind towards the "whole person" writing those words. but also - if it keeps/kept you alive, i'm not a purist. i've done terrible things to myself when i was at rock bottom. in an emergency, we kind of forgive the seatbelt for leaving bruises. it's just that chat shouldn't be your only form of self-care and recovery.

and i worry that the influence chat has is expanding. more and more i see people use chat for the smallest, most easily-navigated situations. and i can't like, make you worry about that in your own life. i often think about how easy it was for social media to take over all my time - how i can't have a tiktok because i spend hours on it. i don't want that to happen with chat. i want to enjoy thinking. i want to enjoy writing. i want to be here. i've already really been struggling to put the phone down. this feels like another way to get you to pick the phone up.

the other day, i was frustrated by a book i was reading. it's far in the series and is about a character i resent. i googled if i had to read it, or if it was one of those "in between" books that don't actually affect the plot (you know, one of those ".5" books). someone said something that really stuck with me - theoretically you're reading this series for enjoyment, so while you don't actually have to read it, one would assume you want to read it.

i am watching a generation of people learn they don't have to read the thing in their hand. and it is kind of a strange sort of doom that comes over me: i read because it's genuinely fun. i learn because even though it's hard, it feels good. i try because it makes me happy to try. and i'm watching a generation of people all lay down and say: but i don't want to try.

[melioristicbeast]

Thinking 'bout.. Older Sterek and love bites 💭💭

[now available on Redbubble!]

[gellavonhamster]

Very late to the party, but that MA thesis on Jonathan and Mina's gender presentation that circulated on Tumblr some time ago (Jonathan, Mina, and the Holiest Love: Intimations of a virtuous queerness in Dracula (1897) by Viktor Karlsen Hessen) really is so, so good. From a deep dive into Jonathan as a Gothic heroine, complete with step-by-step comparisons with an actual Ann Radcliffe's heroine as well as the other female characters he's paralleled with in the text - Scheherazade and Lenore - to an exploration of how Mina's masculine traits are treated as positive throughout the novel and survive into the ending. Also, the author is very careful and rational when talking about Stoker's personal views and sexuality, neither jumping to conclusions based on a few facts nor disregarding those facts at all.

Also, there's a section comparing Mina to other female characters in Gothic literature who do not act in accordance with the Victorian gender norms but are punished for that - Helen Vaughan from The Great God Pan and Marjorie Lindon from The Beetle, and I personally am 1) always there for some The Great God Pan talk, 2) always there for dragging The Beetle.

[cyborgrhodey]

regina spektor is a violent zionist, but i don't think it's constructive or honest at all for people to be like "well her art was always bad anyway." some terrible people have made great art. This idea that artists with unsavory morals can't make good art (1) only feeds into some people's mindset that if they dislike something, that MUST mean there is something ideologically wrong with it, and (2) some people then take longer to realize the true colors of their favorite artists because... good artists can't be ethically bad right?? and so they hang on to their faves and pretend they are so righteous and defend their every move when sometimes. sometimes you just gotta accept that your favorite art was made by somebody you don't agree with, and you have to identify how much you are willing to support someone like that and what lines you have that can't be crossed

[risunsky]

Exceptionally, since it's Dracopia, here's a commission I've just finished. It's been a while since I drew this elegant bloodsucker. Thanks @missygoesmeow for the opportunity! The reference pic is a promotional photo for, as I understand it, a remake of Dangerous Liaisons. This is the Vicomte de Valmont, formerly played by John Malkovich and portrayed on the ref by Nicholas Denton. (I've just found out that it was actually released in 2022 and flopped haha)

My commissions are still open on ko-fi. Don't hesitate, even if I have to finish some comm from May I still have room to fill for June.

[lowpolyshadow]

theres an old new twitter trend going around re: using the crop format (like this:

[contrarianwitt]

i really hate it when the gangseys friendship dynamic is solely reduced to everyone making fun of gansey because in canon 75% of the time it’s ronan being mercilessly made fun of by pretty much everyone and it’s so much funnier than way

[tiredbitchposts]

Speaking of a lesbian Shen Yuan, let's just get it out of the way this woman would NOT know how to act after transmitgation. Like, all it took for a male Shen Yuan to start acting like the world's biggest babygirl was dying and being reborn into a villain's body, what do you think would happen if he was a closeted lesbian who religiously consumed either porn or male centric media? She'd commit war crimes on the poor women who had the luck of interacting with her. This woman would squeeze Liu Qingge's biceps and playfully say she can always depend on her strong shimei to protect her, she'd U-haul a marriageble age Luo Binghe into her side room and treat her as one would a wife, she'd host her sect leader to talk about her peak's budget wearing exactly two layers because it's just so hot and we're all women here shijie, she'd invite Gongyi Xiao to her peak with a smile and too much subtext for it to sound like a simple discipline invite to anyone hearing it, she'd call Zhuzi-lang fascinating to her face with no type of irony or mockery. This woman would would do all that AND still think think someone means lebanese when they say they're a lesbian, again, the system doesn't know what type of evil they unleashed upon the PIDW world

[celendiar]

highkey in love with the idea that when it comes to their relationship, charles and edwin are the complete opposites of their usual behaviour.

charles, normally with zero impulse control or patience, is so so so careful and attentive with edwin, concerned about doing it all just right, spending hours planning their dates and content to take it all slow

meanwhile edwin, normally prim and proper and patient and self-disciplined, has repressed his wants and needs and feelings for 100+ years and now that he no longer has to?? he has no fucks left to give and will kiss charles senseless whenever he damn well wants to

[tesseractingrey]

i think one of the coolest things about dan howell is the example he sets of how your life isn’t over at 25, and one person won’t fix your life but you still can. dan met his actual soulmate at 18 and is only now, in his 30s, finding true and genuine happiness and fulfillment. meeting phil didn’t automatically solve all his problems, although he was clearly a significant part of the motivation to bother doing the work at all. but dan still put in the work himself for YEARS to improve himself and his life and it WORKED. your life isn’t over if you aren’t completely happy and fulfilled and the person you wish you could be in your 20s. putting in the work takes time but it is WORTH IT.

[magz]

Magz birthday is on December 9. Magz is a multiply-disabled nonverbal mixed-black nonbinary artist in "third world" country. Doing at-home physical therapy and (compromise) speech therapy. Trying to be able to job and immigrate. Am grateful to be alive. For birthday, want to start ending this cycle of poverty and pain and emergencies in last Magz fundraiser.

Fundraiser Campaign (Accepts paypal and card. Shows goal progress.) Other links: About Donations | Freebies on Ko-Fi | WishList

(Banner image: art by magz)

Original Post Date: December 7, 2024

[emberhope-fr]

so i had a thought after buying a dragon from a friend

bruce the parrotlet and his "eating dome"

[ophanim-vesper]

not naming names but there seems to be a frequent pattern of online theorists who believe that nonsensical, 'pulled-out-of-their-ass' explanations that have never been implied by the narrative at all seem to be more plausible than a character being queer.