aofelis

[aofelis]

You know that Ada Limón poem where she’s like “i can’t help it i love the way men love”? my dad recently confessed to me that he became a shoemaker because they buried my grandma shoeless

oh…………………………………

[aofelis]

suddenly remembered this poem as i was making breakfast this morning & frantically googled “poem remembered to buy eggs?????????” & somehow managed to find it & it utterly knocked the wind out of me just as much as when i first read it

[aofelis]

we need to make using chatgpt embarrassing bc sorry it really is. what do you mean you can’t write an email

[aofelis]

When i was at school, i got a lot of disability help. Not physical, but i had severe anxiety, adhd and depression, and a particularly bad depressive episode left my brain really badly unable to do any executive functioning, to the point where i couldn't read. I could read each word, but i got to the end of a paragraph and then just not understand what it was that I'd read.

It wasn't always that way though. I was a voracious reader when i was a kid, and had lots of sleepless nights from being unable to put a book down. I'm lucky in that it was temporary, so i wasn't ridiculed for being "stupid", but it was seen as a tragedy instead.

The help i received was fantastic, like a coach who helped break tasks down, and dragon naturally speaking software, and i even got a free laptop. But i couldn't use those things well because, well, because of the anxiety, i couldn't talk to the coach, and because of the executive dysfunction, i literally couldn't figure out ways to utilise what i was given. An AI chatbot might've meant that i did do better, because i wasn't anxious of what another human thought. And.... I dropped out.

But i also feel so conflicted. Because of stupid scarcity mindsets and driving efficiency and cost cutting reasoning, i can also see the help that i received being cut for younger generations because of the availablity of gen ai assistants. The help i received would've been absolutely invaluable for someone who was differently disabled, and getting them through school and getting qualifications that they wouldn't otherwise. And Gen AI isn't enough.

The post above says it perfectly. Using an aid for a disability isn't a moral failing. Using glasses or a mobility aid for someone who needs it is fine. But if you don't need it, it's just going to hinder you. Glasses on someone who doesn't need it is just going to give you a headache and fuck up your vision, a mobility aid might atrophy muscles if you have no need for it, and chat gpt is going to atrophy your ability for writing/executive functioning etc. But it's just that it feels like the only place that makes glasses right now are nuclear weapons manufacturers that use slave labour. People who need it aren't the villains here. They should be given better choices.

we need to make using chatgpt embarrassing bc sorry it really is. what do you mean you can’t write an email

[aofelis]

In the "disabled people need AI for art, saying otherwise is ableist" discourse, I think one point is being lost that is necessary to remember: Not all AI is generative AI. 

For the record I am permanently disabled, I do art and write for fun, and I think generative AI is the devil. However, as a disabled person, I do use ASSISTIVE AI in my daily life to do things I cannot do myself. You probably do as well, without even knowing it. 

What's the difference? Assistive AI is programmed to help humans with tasks, NOT creation!

Examples of very common assistive devices that incorporate AI: 

- A Roomba that learns the layout of your home and moves about it to vacuum, then returns to its dock - A driverless car - Hearing aids that learn your needs and adjust to give you better sound quality  - Text to speech programs that allow you to dictate your writing to a computer  - Speech to text programs, including closed captioning on TV/films or phones that instantly convert speech to text - Pumps for type 1 diabetes that monitor your blood sugar levels and adjust your insulin dosage in real time to keep you at a stable level Assistive AI and assistive technology in art and writing might include: 

- Speech to text to allow you to dictate your writing to a computer if you cannot type - Programs to automatically alter contrast, colors or text on a screen to be easier to see - Devices to make holding paintbrushes, pencils or other tools easier or possible - Paintbrushes, crochet hooks, pens or other tools that have larger handles and are easier for people with arthritis or other hand conditions to hold - Speech based programs that allow you to direct a pen or on screen drawing - Chairs and tables that accommodate disability or illness needs and allow someone to sit or stand as they need to  - A camera that stabilizes itself to adjust to a photographer with shaking hands

Assistive AI and technology in art and writing DOES NOT INCLUDE: 

- Using GENERATIVE AI

Generative AI is essentially regurgitating someone else's work, which was likely to have been taken without their consent or compensation. It's nothing more than stealing from others. Many people who have had their work stolen to train AI models are disabled. It's exploiting others for profit, and that is in itself an ableist action.  

So we need to parse this out, and realize that AI as an assistive tool is absolutely valid and completely removed from generative AI. Two different things. 

[aofelis]

friends, if I can give you one piece of advice for those of you who are new to work, or are about to enter the workforce, especially if you have any sort of office job:

Do not work on your days off.

"But--"

DO NOT WORK ON YOUR DAYS OFF.

[aofelis]

the wildlife photographer of the year peoples choice award is always fun

there's a stoat hiding in that last one

source - go check out the rest of the awards too, they're really incredible

[aofelis]

every writing tip article and their mother: dont ever use adverbs ever!

me, shoveling more adverbs onto the page because i do what i want: just you fucking try and stop me

[aofelis]

hope is a skill

[aofelis]

Download this easy DIY clothing repair guide (only 10 pages) from Uni of Kentucky

link to PDF

[aofelis]

[aofelis]

call me a dirty communist radical but I think everyone should know if they live near toxic waste

[aofelis]

Green eyes shouldn’t actually be considered an eye color. It’s just not common enough, it’s a VERY SMALL percentage of the population, 1-2%. Green eyes are also caused by an irregular mutation. Most people have blue or brown eyes, so those are the two eye colors.

All the “green eyes” positivity is actually a bad thing, by the way. Having green eyes is linked to higher rates of retinal melanoma. You’re celebrating something dangerous that can cause suffering.

And besides, most people with “green eyes” lean closer to blue or brown anyways. They should just make up their minds and be brown eyed or blue eyed. And if it’s too hard to tell, they should get corrective surgery (because green eyes are dangerous, and associated with more difficult medical care!) or at the least wear contacts so they don’t confuse people. But also they should be required to

I hate to sound like this, but green eyes are a far more recent development than blue eyes in the mutagenic history of humans. So humans weren’t created to have green eyes.

And hazel eyes? Those are just a variant of brown eyes—come on, they’re far closer to brown than green. They just have a couple greenish traits. And there’s no way there’s that many green eyed people, or a wide variety of eye colors… It’s just not natural.

I don’t have a problem with green eyed people, they didn’t ask to be born that way—but there’s just too few of them for it to be an actual eye color. We don’t need all this “green eye positivity” or putting green eyes in media. The internet is making people delude themselves into thinking it’s more common than it really is.

‼️ THIS POST IS ABOUT THE TREATMENT OF INTERSEX PEOPLE ‼️

✅ I HAVE GREEN EYES THIS IS SATIRE ✅

⚠️ PLEASE DON’T SEND ME ANY MORE THREATS OF VIOLENCE IN DEFENSE OF PEOPLE WITH GREEN EYES?? ⚠️

💧 THIS POST IS NOT ABOUT EYE COLOR?? IT’S ABOUT INTERSEXISM AND BIGOTRY 💧

[aofelis]

This weekend I was told a story which, although I’m kind of ashamed to admit it, because holy shit is it ever obvious, is kind of blowing my mind.

A friend of a friend won a free consultation with Clinton Kelly of What Not To Wear, and she was very excited, because she has a plus-size body, and wanted some tips on how to make the most of her wardrobe in a fashion culture which deliberately puts her body at a disadvantage.

Her first question for him was this: how do celebrities make a plain white t-shirt and a pair of weekend jeans look chic?  She always assumed it was because so many celebrities have, by nature or by design, very slender frames, and because they can afford very expensive clothing.  But when she watched What Not To Wear, she noticed that women of all sizes ended up in cute clothes that really fit their bodies and looked great.  She had tried to apply some guidelines from the show into her own wardrobe, but with only mixed success.  So - what gives?

His answer was that everything you will ever see on a celebrity’s body, including their outfits when they’re out and about and they just get caught by a paparazzo, has been tailored, and the same goes for everything on What Not To Wear.  Jeans, blazers, dresses - everything right down to plain t-shirts and camisoles.  He pointed out that historically, up until the last few generations, the vast majority of people either made their own clothing or had their clothing made by tailors and seamstresses.  You had your clothing made to accommodate the measurements of your individual body, and then you moved the fuck on.  Nothing on the show or in People magazine is off the rack and unaltered.  He said that what they do is ignore the actual size numbers on the tags, find something that fits an individual’s widest place, and then have it completely altered to fit.  That’s how celebrities have jeans that magically fit them all over, and the rest of us chumps can’t ever find a pair that doesn’t gape here or ride up or slouch down or have about four yards of extra fabric here and there.

I knew that having dresses and blazers altered was probably something they were doing, but to me, having alterations done generally means having my jeans hemmed and then simply living with the fact that I will always be adjusting my clothing while I’m wearing it because I have curves from here to ya-ya, some things don’t fit right, and the world is just unfair that way.  I didn’t think that having everything tailored was something that people did. 

It’s so obvious, I can’t believe I didn’t know this.  But no one ever told me.  I was told about bikini season and dieting and targeting your “problem areas” and avoiding horizontal stripes.  No one told me that Jennifer Aniston is out there wearing a bigger size of Ralph Lauren t-shirt and having it altered to fit her.

I sat there after I was told this story, and I really thought about how hard I have worked not to care about the number or the letter on the tag of my clothes, how hard I have tried to just love my body the way it is, and where I’ve succeeded and failed.  I thought about all the times I’ve stood in a fitting room and stared up at the lights and bit my lip so hard it bled, just to keep myself from crying about how nothing fits the way it’s supposed to.  No one told me that it wasn’t supposed to.  I guess I just didn’t know.  I was too busy thinking that I was the one that didn’t fit.

I thought about that, and about all the other girls and women out there whose proportions are “wrong,” who can’t find a good pair of work trousers, who can’t fill a sweater, who feel excluded and freakish and sad and frustrated because they have to go up a size, when really the size doesn’t mean anything and it never, ever did, and this is just another bullshit thing thrown in your path to make you feel shitty about yourself.

I thought about all of that, and then I thought that in elementary school, there should be a class for girls where they sit you down and tell you this stuff before you waste years of your life feeling like someone put you together wrong.

So, I have to take that and sit with it for a while.  But in the meantime, I thought perhaps I should post this, because maybe my friend, her friend, and I are the only clueless people who did not realise this, but maybe we’re not.  Maybe some of you have tried to embrace the arbitrary size you are, but still couldn’t find a cute pair of jeans, and didn’t know why.

[aofelis]

today someone asked me what my favorite even-toed ungulate is… god, who could decide?