sk3tchisworld

[sk3tchisworld]

decentralize and clean up your life!!!

use overdrive, libby, hoopla, cloudlibrary, and kanopy instead of amazon and audible.

use firefox instead of chrome or opera (both are made with chromium, which blocks functionality for ad-blockers. firefox isn't based on chromium).

use mega or proton drive instead of google drive.

get rid of bloatware

use libreoffice instead of microsoft office suite

use vetted sites on r/FREEMEDIAHECKYEAH for free movies, books, games, etc.

use trakt or letterboxd instead of imdb.

use storygraph instead of goodreads.

use darkpatterns to find mobile game with no ads or microtransactions

use ground news to read unbiased news and find blind spots in news stories.

use mediahuman or cobalt to download music, or support your favorite artists directly through bandcamp

make youtube bearable by using mtube, newpipe, or the unhook extension on chrome, firefox, or microsoft edge

use search for a cause or ecosia to support the environment instead of google

use thriftbooks to buy new or used books (they also have manga, textbooks, home goods, CDs, DVDs, and blurays)

use flashpoint to play archived online flash games

find books, movies, games, etc. on the internet archive! for starters, here's a bunch of David Attenborough documentaries and all of the Animorphs books

burn your music onto cds

use pdf24 (available online or as a desktop app) instead of adobe

use unroll.me to clean your email inboxes

use thunderbird, mailfence, countermail, edison mail, tuta, or proton mail instead of gmail

remove bloatware on windows PC, macOS, and iOS X

remove bloatware on samsung X

use pixelfed instead of instagram or meta

use NCH suite for free software like a file converter, image editor, video editors, pdf editor, etc.

feel free to add more alternatives, resources or advice in the reblogs or replies, and i'll add them to the main post <3

last updated: march 18th 2025

[sk3tchisworld]

Something I don't think we talk enough about in discussions surrounding AI is the loss of perseverance.

I have a friend who works in education and he told me about how he was working with a small group of HS students to develop a new school sports chant. This was a very daunting task for the group, in large part because many had learning disabilities related to reading and writing, so coming up with a catchy, hard-hitting, probably rhyming, poetry-esque piece of collaborative writing felt like something outside of their skill range. But it wasn't! I knew that, he knew that, and he worked damn hard to convince the kids of that too. Even if the end result was terrible (by someone else's standards), we knew they had it in them to complete the piece and feel super proud of their creation.

Fast-forward a few days and he reports back that yes they have a chant now... but it's 99% AI. It was made by Chat-GPT. Once the kids realized they could just ask the bot to do the hard thing for them - and do it "better" than they (supposedly) ever could - that's the only route they were willing to take. It was either use Chat-GPT or don't do it at all. And I was just so devastated to hear this because Jesus Christ, struggling is important. Of course most 14-18 year olds aren't going to see the merit of that, let alone understand why that process (attempting something new and challenging) is more valuable than the end result (a "good" chant), but as adults we all have a responsibility to coach them through that messy process. Except that's become damn near impossible with an Instantly Do The Thing app in everyone's pocket. Yes, AI is fucking awful because of plagiarism and misinformation and the environmental impact, but it's also keeping people - particularly young people - from developing perseverance. It's not just important that you learn to write your own stuff because of intellectual agency, but because writing is hard and it's crucial that you learn how to persevere through doing hard things.

Write a shitty poem. Write an essay where half the textual 'evidence' doesn't track. Write an awkward as fuck email with an equally embarrassing typo. Every time you do you're not just developing that particular skill, you're also learning that you did something badly and the world didn't end. You can get through things! You can get through challenging things! Not everything in life has to be perfect but you know what? You'll only improve at the challenging stuff if you do a whole lot of it badly first. The ability to say, "I didn't think I could do that but I did it anyway. It's not great, but I did it," is SO IMPORTANT for developing confidence across the board, not just in these specific tasks.

Idk I'm just really worried about kids having to grow up in a world where (for a variety of reasons beyond just AI) they're not given the chance to struggle through new and challenging things like we used to.

[sk3tchisworld]

Hopefully by doing one single prompt a day I can get myself in the swing of, I don’t know, actually getting better. I already have the daily itch but I feel like I am so far from where I could be if I was just consistent.

Anyway, this silhouette is from a concept I’ve had since I realized squiggles turn into pretty pictures. Hopefully, they will turn into a whole series. But ya know what they say, start small. Maybe when I have better prompts I’ll flesh out who they are and what they symbolize for me.

Prompt: Silhouette

Prompt from App: Sketch Daily

Program used: Procreate

Brushes: dry ink, syrup, modified marker

[sk3tchisworld]

[sk3tchisworld]

I just reada really good fic but halfway through I realized "oh shit this is really familiar.... didn't I write something like this once?" And as I kept reading I kept predicting what happened next and the further I went the more convinced I was that they'd ripped off my story-

like, copied the ENTIRE plot and re-written it, just better than I had? The characters were more fleshed-out than mine were, and the POV was more interesting, and the pace made more sense- but it was MY STORY?

So close to the end I was like "holy shit.. do I message them? Ask if my story inspired theirs? Should I be angry? Flattered?" Cause their tags and description didn't mention me AT ALL, which, sure, it's fanfiction to begin with, but if you're using my work than at least credit me as inspo, right? Just to be courteous?

But I get to the end of the final chapter, and it's not finished, and I'm kind of disappointed cause I never finished my story and I was really immersed in their version now and had been looking forwards to seeing how they tied up my loose ends- so I scroll to the bottom to leave a comment, and.

It's MY URL.

IT WAS MY STORY THE WHOLE TIME.

THE ONE *I WROTE*.

In *2013*.

And FORGOT ABOUT

BECAUSE I WAS SO INSECURE ABOUT MY SLOPPY, SHALLOW, AMETEUR WRITING

And I'm just sitting here now staring into space thinking about every shitty story I've ever written now like

IT WAS ALL GOOD?

IT WAS GOOD THIS WHOLE DAMN TIME??

I'M A GOOD WRITER?????

[sk3tchisworld]

Well, now I have to make an OC with a vulture as a familiar, symbol, aspect, aesthetic... just something.

×kicks rocks× Maaaan...

Vultures are holy creatures.

Tending the dead.

Bowing low.

Bared head.

Whispers to cold flesh,

“Your old name is not your king.

I rename you ‘Everything.’”

[sk3tchisworld]

There was a moment today when I realized I'd be the character in a cast that is ALWAYS seen eating.

Every shot is a sandwich, jerky, or some snack half consumed with crumbs everywhere.

And you know something is going down when food is refused or goes unfinished.

[sk3tchisworld]

Power fantasies are great...

But have you tried fucking up royally, trying to fix it, and fucking up even worse?

Taking L's when you were absolutely certain sure you would beast xyz will be the first time your character breathes. I promise you haven't met them before that moment.

rolling badly is something that can be so good for developing your character, actually 

[sk3tchisworld]

just a reminder:

a black girl character growing her hair out long breaks more stereotypes than a black girl character having short hair

a black girl character getting to be soft and fragile breaks more stereotypes than a black girl character being strong all the time

a black girl character being protected and comforted by others breaks more stereotypes than a black girl character having no one to look out for her but herself

a black girl character being considered pretty or cute by other characters breaks more stereotypes than a black girl character being considered unattractive

not everything that is empowering for white girls is empowering for black girls

the sexism we face overlaps, but it is not the same

[sk3tchisworld]

Comic about something that happened in 2019

[sk3tchisworld]

I have tried everything to not write. But the words won't stop...

Sometimes a creative outlet is a fun little hobby and sometimes it's a lifelong affliction. Like I crochet because making little woven animals sparks joy and I'm a writer whether I like it or not because I'm tormented by visions

[sk3tchisworld]

A pair of cherry blossom ravens~

[sk3tchisworld]

Apparently, I had already hearted this and didn't remember. So now I must reblog until the end of time.

🧿🔮🪶

You can support my comics with patreon!

https://www.patreon.com/namesake

[sk3tchisworld]

[sk3tchisworld]

I couldn't think of anywhere else to put this, so I decided to share here.

I miss dodgeball. I miss monkey bars. I miss low stakes competitive sports. I miss the wonder and curiosity of the spooky and mysterious. I miss being a kid.

Some days, I forget how old I am because my 30s aren't what I expected them to be. I watched grown-ups who had become so hardened that I desperately feared the day I crested that third peak of life.

'I don't want to get old."

"Then you have to die young," my aunt said.

So, now when my knees crack and my back aches, I do my stretches, turn my Bluetooth boombox replica, and say, "I can't get old because I'm gonna die young."

[sk3tchisworld]

“how did you get into writing” girl nobody gets into writing. writing shows up one day at your door and gets into you

[sk3tchisworld]

Some of these sort of piggyback but these are variations of my true life experiences. I think it's powerful to 'come of age' at 30. You have so much to look back on and it's just as scary (if not scarier) to break out when you've now seen the world's ugly. You are no longer ignorant to the dangers and now you're opting into it purposefully. But it's that or the twisting frustration inside that you never tried.

Shaking free of those social norms you realize you never identified with and learning to express your true identity/aesthetic.

Taking a leap of faith to travel or pursue X that you previously were convinced/pressured was a bad idea because of 'society'.

Revisiting a childhood dream with new skills and experiences and bringing it to fruition in a way little you could have never imagined.

Breaking free of a toxic cycle (either addictions or a bad relationship with family) and embracing a new free life.

Discovering you are aro-ace after years of being told you 'just haven't found the one yet'.

That post about 30 year old coming of age stories?

I’ve been thinking about it all morning. What would the plot points be for that? What makes a 30 year old coming of age story?

Old folks sound off in the comments