jameyannefuller - Tumblr blog

[jameyannefuller]

This too shall pass but like holy fuck

[jameyannefuller]

Lam: I am being sent home early from the field trip for having prophetic visions

[jameyannefuller]

[jameyannefuller]

A quick summary of the last 16 months

[jameyannefuller]

Need someone to invent a time machine so I can read nevermoor for the first time again

[jameyannefuller]

Ezra: people always shut down my ideas and I’m sick of it

Ezra: two sentences in and everyone’s already shouting “what the hell that’s illegal” or “you can’t do that!” Let me talk dear god

[jameyannefuller]

Speaking of blind things, today I saw someone write “no alt text” in their image description and that is just about the most insulting thing I’ve seen it used for. Just leave it blank if you don’t wanna describe, asshole! Unnecessary alt text blocks a screen reader from being able to try and interpret an image, so either describe it or don’t!

If you put a link in the alt text I will come to your house and throw my white cane through your window like a javelin. Don’t do that shit. Sighted people won’t see it and I literally can’t make use of it.

In good news, AccessiBe is finally getting the shit surd out of them for lying to customers and making the web worse with their shitty overlays and I am ecstatic. :D

[jameyannefuller]

I know that I am preaching to the anti-AI choir, but I genuinely believe that skills like summarizing, articulating, and refining an argument, engaging with existing research or information yourself, and going through the process of crafting materials are core skills for life but also for many careers, and outsourcing those degrades people's ability to think critically and engage with ideas.

Even ignoring the fact that generative AI is awful for the environment and based almost entirely in intellectual property theft and has a bunch of other ethical issues, using gen AI as a crutch will actually just make you worse at both engaging with life and doing many professional jobs.

But also, beyond this, you will benefit from actively engaging with research and the news and shaping, summarizing, and articulating arguments.

Can you read a piece of news or an article and understand the point it is making? Do you know how to identify the biases of the source? Do you know how to understand what you are reading in the context of that bias?

Can you shape an argument based on information you have engaged with? Can you validate that argument by seeking out additional relevant information? Can you describe that argument to someone who is familiar with the subject matter? Can you describe or summarize that argument to someone who is not familiar with the subject matter?

Can you articulate your point--whether it is an argument or just a question--in written format? Can you articulate it out loud? Do you know how to shape what you are expressing to a given audience?

Being able to articulate yourself clearly, in a logical structure that is based on verified evidence, is important for so much of life.

[jameyannefuller]

This is apparently a hotter take than I thought but: hating on lawyers as a profession, calling them inherently dishonest etc. is politically reactionary. It discourages defendants from seeking legal counsel, puts forth the idea that it’s inherently suspicious to insist on seeing a lawyer before you answer police questioning (your constitutional right!) etc. which ultimately just benefits the state in making it easier for them to convict you. This is one of those things that “progressives” who were raised conservative often don’t realize is one of the parts of their parents’ worldview they should question more, but they should. Not only are lawyers not The Problem with “our system,” but having someone who is educated in the law whose job is to represent your interests in court — getting one regardless of your ability to pay, even! — is in fact one of the best parts of it.

[jameyannefuller]

"How do you write such realistic dialogue-" I TALK TO MYSELF. I TALK TO MYSELF AND I PRETEND I AM THE ONE SAYING THE LINE. LIKE SANITY IS SLOWLY SLIPPING FROM BETWEEN MY FINGERS WITH EVERY MEASLY WORD THEY TYPE OUT. THAT IS HOW.

[jameyannefuller]

sorry yeah ive got a bad case of Thinking About My Friends. im afraid its incurable. symptoms include happiness and love and wishes that they will have the life they want to live.

[jameyannefuller]

The devastating difference between how much time it takes to write something vs how fast people read it lol

[jameyannefuller]

"People don't write about something because it's important. They write about something and that makes it important."

Hold these words close to your hearts, writers!

one time a professor asked me if i’d ever wanted to write anything “more important” than romance. and i said no. i was put on this earth to write about sad people kissing. and if another writer ever came up to me and said they wanted to write 400 pages containing nothing but a character baking a single loaf of bread each day, then i would tell them to do that. people don't write something because it's important. they write about something and that is what makes it important

[jameyannefuller]

being a vampire rn is really hard bc of the housing crisis like. older vampires do Not get it. if you were turned in France in 1350 I literally do not want to hear about it from you. do you know how hard it is to lure a young lawyer to your home when you have roommates?? and the roommates aren’t your accursed brides for the record. they’re just some dudes. one of them is a middle school teacher.

not to mention some landlords these days will even just straight up use the basement in the place YOU’RE renting for their own storage?? so you can’t even access the basement so you’re not sleeping in soil down there.

my one friend literally pays $1300 a month for a STUDIO and she just has a bunch of soil in a big plastic tub and she has to sleep with her knees all bent up.

and like at least she can lure artists there pretty easily because it’s like very industrial

but idk. and older vampires will be like “a year of your rent costs more than my entire manor and all of its grounds! why don’t you simply buy an estate?”

yeah dude I don’t doubt that you bought your entire manor and the monastic ruins and its cemetery and the haunted woods for €4,000 in fucking 1708!!! DUH!!! Fuck off

[jameyannefuller]

Mog: yeah im pretty laid back

Doctor: actually Morrigan, you have three different diseases from stress and another two from handling it so poorly

[jameyannefuller]

In writing, epithets ("the taller man"/"the blonde"/etc) are inherently dehumanizing, in that they remove a character's name and identity, and instead focus on this other quality.

Which can be an extremely effective device within narration!

They can work very well for characters whose names the narrator doesn't know yet (especially to differentiate between two or more). How specific the epithet is can signal to the reader how important the character is going to be later on, and whether they should dedicate bandwidth to remembering them for later ("the bearded man" is much less likely to show up again than "the man with the angel tattoo")

They can indicate when characters stop being as an individual and instead embody their Role, like a detective choosing to think of their lover simply as The Thief when arresting them, or a royal character being referred to as The Queen when she's acting on behalf of the state

They can reveal the narrator's biases by repeatedly drawing attention to a particular quality that singles them out in the narrator's mind

But these only work if the epithet used is how the narrator primarily identifies that character. Which is why it's so jarring to see a lot of common epithets in intimate moments-- because it conveys that the main character is primarily thinking of their lover/best friend/etc in terms of their height or age or hair color.

[jameyannefuller]

Morrigan: I wish cancel culture was real I want my father to suffer the consequences of his actions