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for those who had "Somerton reactivates Patreon before March 1 so he can collect" in the pool, it looks like you should go collect your winnings as well.

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Those eye dilation drops make my near vision blurry for 8-12 hours at every checkup. At one point they had reversal drops but they just stopped making them because most people recover more quickly. For a few glorious years I didn't have to clear the rest of my day for a routine annual exam, but alas: capitalism.

I have just realised that "nobody wants to work any more" is true, but the 'nobody' in this case is large companies.

They don't want to do any of the things which aren't absolutely essential to getting a product slapped together and shoved out the door so they can get your money. They don't want to do testing, write documentation, train their staff, provide support, give a good customer experience, none of it. Anything they can automate, or farm out to third parties, even if the results are terrible, they will. Because it's cheaper and all they care about is making the number go up.

Usually there is a way to contact support/customer service (eventually) but when you do, they can't actually help due to having not had sufficient training to know anything and not having the ability to escalate anything. All most of them can do is read the meaningless blather off the company's web site for you.

But more and more they just don't provide any way to contact them. There's no law which says they have to, is there?

And what else are you going to do, go with a competitor? Even if a viable competitor exists, they're all the same.

Go without the thing? Good luck with that, a lot of this stuff has become essential to modern life.

I mean none of that is new information, it's just that I hadn't thought of it in those terms before.

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Have you ever cried or been significantly upset at the death of a celebrity?

Yes (which one?), because I cared about them or their work

Yes, for practical reasons (ex. it was a politician with good political views)

Yes, but not because I cared about them (ex. their cause of death was a trigger for you)

No, but I would if certain famous people were to die

No, and I wouldn't even if a celebrity I liked died

No, because there are no celebrities I like/care about

Other (put in tags)

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I mean, one could complain to the BOD of automattic that the CEO is damaging their brand. He may own the company, but he has fiduciary duty to a lot of people, so the contact us form is the first place I went.

I just read this reddit comment about yesterday's staff post and ... 100%

People in the notes of the post don't seem to understand how massive of a move this is. Sure, this is not the Tuileries palace storming, nor the execution of Louis XVI, but it very well could be Tumblr's storming of the Bastille.

See, what happened yesterday was a bunch of trans staffers very politely saying "our boss is full of crap, what he is doing is absolutely not ok", and also "the official line he had been posting narrative of everything being peachy with moderation is bullshit, we acknowledge the systemic problem, and we demand addressing it ASAP".

Now, this has probably been possible just because of the exceptional circumstances: Louis XVI (Matt) is on vacation on his summer palace, and the person who he had left in charge of the court has refused to order the army to quell the internal strife... so they have stormed the Bastille to ask for the abolition of the ancient regime. Mind you, that doesn't mean we are at a point where they are in the middle of a revolutionary coup to create the Paris Commune: that's not in the cards right now. This is more about the people rioting to demand the king powers to have checks and balances. this is about demanding a constitutional monarchy instead of the current absolute king.

The people in the notes don't seem to understand the exceptional situation that the post creates. We are at a point where Matt Mullenweg has been called out by his own employees. His company, in his absence, had allowed his employees to break with the unified PR narrative that usually is forced to follow whatever path the CEO points to.

Now Louis XVI is in a peculiar position. His Authority had not only been questioned by the Paris rabble (us), but now he also had a regiment of elite grenadiers (1er Régiment du Trans Guards) openly in revolt and siding with the people of Paris. They are not firing at the royal palace, but they are saying "you know what? The people in the streets are right. We are not firing at them, your majesty". So Matt's next move is crucial. As I see it, there are several possibilities:

- the king / Matt acknowledges he had been in the wrong (either honestly or just because he doesn't feel powerful enough to win a civil war), accepts to get his powers limited, and allows some partial reform to address people's demands. This is obviously the best option for my friends still working for Tumblr. That doesn't mean tumblr would become a queer communist paradise, but at least we would see things improving.

- the king refuses to engage: he moves the court to another city (names a new Tumblr CEO reporting to him) and move the army to Paris to repress the rebellion (fires the people behind the post, double down in the current moderation policies). Things keep being the same, but without the people who asked for improvements.

- the king gets fed up of having to deal with ungrateful rabble and decides to just make an example out of Paris and orders the army to reprise the St. Bartholomew night, but on Paris population this time. This would be Matt firing everyone involved and closing Tumblr two months from now.

Right now, I wouldn't know which of these three options is more probable. Matt has been very quiet since yesterday, and whatever he posts next would be a big signal of how he is going to react to this development of The Situation.

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"nothing is real atoms never touch each other youve never touched anything in your life" ok. well when i pet my dog he is soft and when he licks my hand it is wet and that is far more real to me than whatevers going on at an atomic level

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I'M SO EXCITED! We get Keith David for one day only, July 4, 2024. You'll notice a big gargoyles contingent this year - the show had its 20th anniversary celebration with us at CVG 10 years ago, and will celebrate 30 years at this CVG 2024.

Coming to CONvergence 2024: Everyone's Invited!

Keith David!!!

Keith David is a classically trained, multiple Emmy award winning actor. He is currently shooting a new series for producer JJ Abrams and HBO Max entitled Duster. He recently shot The Gray House, a drama series produced by Kevin Costner and Morgan Freeman. Keith was featured in Jordan Peele’s latest film Nope. He also recently starred in Black As Night for Blumhouse / Amazon. Keith’s work as a voice actor has made him a household name. His rich and powerful voice has been featured in national commercials, award shows, documentaries, video games, and animation. Voice acting credits include countless fan favorites such as Adventure Time, Bojack Horseman, Rick & Morty, Spawn, and Gargoyles.

Read more about Keith David: https://www.convergence-con.org/guests/keith-david/ Register for CONvergence 2024: https://cvgcon.org/register

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&ILOVEYOUTOO<3

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Not actually a textile, but I sure did have fun.

I made a little dragon.

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I may need to do this at work. The tear-able puns went over pretty well...

So this was posted on the bulletin board at school

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Another paw print hat.

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Putting this here so I remember I like the skirt.

Dress

1950s

Timeless Vixen Vintage

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The back.

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After!

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Before...

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This year's festival acquisition, the peg loom. Woolley fun!

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Who I'm with this weekend!