snarky-synesthete

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Rules of DIY:

if it's a skill, there's rules you can learn

if it's an art, rules are not your concern

make it fucked up or you won't make it

if it's already broken, you can't break it

anything can be fixed with gorilla glue

except for pleather, and also you

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“I would LEETERALLY die for my kids!!!” from conservative white Christian Americans is so unintentionally hilarious to me as a former teacher. The overwhelming majority (if not all) US school teachers come to work every day worrying if that is going to be the day they are sprayed by semi automatic gunfire while shielding YOUR CHILD with their bodies. And in return you stalk them online, show up at their jobs, scream at them about indoctrination and transgenders, spit flying from your mouth, crying about pronouns and communism, threatening them & their families & jobs over literally nothing at all. It’s fucking disgusting

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No, this is pretty accurate.

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Holy shit

this is crazy i’m going crazy over this

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Oh we’re choosing violence today, I see

the “you’re in a car with a boy” richard siken quote juxtaposed with the “you go too fast for me crowley” scene is literally killing me LITERALLY killing me i’m shaking from the sheer EMOTION of it

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DAVID DUCHOVNY & GILLIAN ANDERSON for US WEEKLY (1997)

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Melting into bed like butter in a pan

/ \

/ \

/ tässä \

/ talossa \

| rakastetaan|

| pötköttelyä |

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When I find myself in times of trouble

Leonard Nimoy comes to me

Speaking words of wisdom

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Flashbacks to researching makeshift lube in the 60s, learning more about the Crisco Disco, then doing a deep dive into vegetable shortening brands available in 1960s London, & finding incredibly collated research about queer slang & slurs throughout time across the planet organized by both era and location…

writing historical fiction is like: yes i can write a beautiful scene with longing glances but FIRST i must know how people brushed their teeth in 1814

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Okay so. This is a wild story.

Back in 2007, when I was 17 years old, I made this little two headed rabbit out of felt. I used to wear him in my hair to high school. I took the below photo on my digital camera on top of a school desk and uploaded it to deviant art and never thought about it again.

Last March I got a message on instagram from someone who contacted me because they wanted permission to tattoo something from my deviant art account. I was baffled because it had mostly been cosplay, so I asked what they were interested in and they pulled him up.

I told them I was surprised anyone was interested in him and was fine with it. They immediately were like, what? He's so popular, hasn't anyone told you?

I did a quick google search and honestly nothing could have prepared me.

In the nearly 15 years since I had uploaded this photo it had gone BERSERK. Pinterest has dozens of copies of him, artwork of him, remakes inspired by him, DUPES being sold for years online. Reverse image search showed countless pfps, album covers, memes, edits, A PICREW, endless amazon and alixpress and redbubble products with him slapped on it.

I also found plenty of art, edited videos, all sorts of positive things. And all together its been a rollercoaster of emotions watching something you made when you were a teenager skyrocket in popularity and no one thought to tell you.

I sat on this for a long time, I had to process a lot of emotions about seeing something I had created and kept be whisked off and used like this. I enjoyed the creative work and inspiration, and I despised the people who used it as a chance to make money off an uncredited artist, one who happens to be trans, queer, disabled and native. I feel I should be going out guns blazing and taking down all the listings that are selling him, but it feels ..... I dont know. It feels like a lost cause.

I further sat on it until a friend who knew sent me a photo of a new product Marc Jacobs is putting out.

And Im.

:')

Anyways.

I would love to get the word out that the creator of the two headed rabbit beloved by creative internet weirdos was not made by an anonymous mysterious nothingness, but by a trans and queer and deeply hurting seventeen year old who grew up to be a very happy adult who is still creating things.

Please help me get the word out. I posted this video on both my doll accounts on instagram and tiktok, please share around, please give me a follow to support my new work.

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A little advice from someone studying extremist groups: if you’re in a social media environment where the daily ubiquitous message is that you have no hope of any kind of future and you can’t possibly achieve anything without a violent overthrow of society, you’re being radicalized, and not in the good way.

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okay

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GenAI v. not GenAI round up.

So you can avoid them stealing things from you, the artist/writer, etc.

Pro GenAI websites/Programs:

Facebook

Instagram

X/Twitter (Remember, Grok gives people cancer)

Threads

Pro Writing Aid

Grammarly

Duolingo

Google Docs

Microsoft Word/all Microsoft products Takes from and will feed their machine.

Youtube (taking advantage of people who are hearing impaired. ==;;)

Adobe Products. All of them. If you HAVE to use them (Some businesses require it), save offline because there is a film of at least some privacy protections there, so if you have to sue, you can say it violates US privacy law. Remember, contracts do not circumvent US law.

Corel won't feed the machines, but still uses AI stolen from other artists. Which sucks since Corel Draw is the second best overall for vector programs. (Plus I love Painter, but I bought the offline version to avoid AI). (Canadian company)

Canva Takes and feeds their machine.

Deviant Art Not only supports AI, but put a tool in and said they are going to steal your work if you like it or not for their machine.

Sketchup went Pro-GenAI. The thing is that you can do the same thing in Blender these days with precise measurements.

Autodesk has stated they are Pro-Gen AI here. It is not clear if they will use your models to feed their machine. But be on guard. They make Maya and 3Dmax. You can replace it with Blender.

Neutral ground:

Tumblr (there is a way to opt out [Link] and they don't have an active AI machine.) https://www.tumblr.com/dookins/743519550598987776/heres-how-to-disable-third-parties-like-ai

Etsy allows GenAI, but still has some (minor) restrictions. I'd still be cautious. (Also be cautious of drop shippers). Complaints about too much AI and AI images+patterns made by Ai still exist on the website. They lean slightly more pro-AI, but still won't let it run completely amok, say like Facebook. They won't feed your work into a machine, but also don't ban it through robots.txt.

Bluesky They don't use an AI algorithm except for in the "Discover" section of their website, but while they are anti-GenAI strongly, they don't seem to block the Gen AI bots from entry, so you'd still have to use Nightshade or Glaze (links below). There is no opt-out because they don't need an opt out. (Leaning towards strong position on AI, but I wish they would block GenAI bots).

Searxng- If you super want to screw over Google, in general, and have some tech savvy, you can set up your own search engine through searxng. It's easier on Windows and Linux than it is on a Mac. (Mac you need Docker), but if you're determined on privacy, Searxng adds a layer of privacy. Some of it sometimes uses bits of AI, but most of it doesn't and you can fuss with the settings so it doesn't spit out AI results. At sheer minimum Google will stop spitting out weird videos on Youtube at you because in your private browsing, you searched for the origin of ball bearings while not logged in for a book and Google likes to break privacy laws.

Strong positions against AI:

Scrivener (Creator vowed against AI) Writing program. There is an active forum, and versions for Mac, Linux and PC. It is paid, but at ~60 USD, it's cheaper than most programs. There is usually a holiday sale around Christmas. It has a learning curve, but with an active forum with the programmer of it there to ask obscure questions it's not a dead zone. They often take suggestions and implement them over time. (Especially if you rank the importance, applications, etc) US company.

LibreOffice Open source and free Spreadsheet and Word processor program that can replace Microsoft Word. Some people might have seen older versions where it was called Neo Office (now extinct) and Open Office. LibreOffice is still populated, plus the forums are super helpful if you get stuck. The UX is pretty intuitive if you've used Microsoft Word. Scrivener, BTW, supports exporting to odt (the native file) as well as .doc, and this can open both. The slight thing is that sometimes it doesn't export to .doc smoothly. And I DO wish more magazines, and agent (big clue here) supported .odt files since it is free. Part of the reason .odt isn't as supported is because Microsoft and Adobe have a deal with the devil with each other, so Adobe's Book formatting program InDesign doesn't support ODT. (BTW, if you have a good open source replacement for InDesign that supports ODT, let me know.)

Dabble (as suggested by SF stories, see reblog) is a writing program. Similar to Scrivener. Has vowed against AI and to resist it. 108 dollars a year for Basic. It is almost twice the price of Scrivener who lets you update for fairly cheap. 29 dollars a month, v. 59 dollars for the whole program (Scrivener) for the same features of Premium. You choose.

yWriter is a free Writing program and like Scrivener, and has vowed against AI Last I looked it had some UX issues, but some people swear by it. The learning curve is higher than Scrivener which is saying something.

Ellipsus is an online writing program and vowed against AI. The main feature I like (which Scrivener doesn't have) is the ability to change spellcheck based on region/language. It is a requested feature of Scrivener, but lower priority. So if you have a Brit, you can get the spelling for the character. They are a British-based company.

Cara.app (The creator of the website sued GenAI there is no chance they'll convert) is an artist website. Cara is trying to institute an auto Glaze/Nightshade into the website if given enough funds. People see it as a soft replacement for deviant art. (which went fully AI) If you believe in human art, please donate if you can. Zhang Jingna, the Creator,is Chinese-Singporean. She lives in Singapore.

Clip Studio Paint added AI, but saw the light and decided to protect artists instead because of protest and removed it. There are tutorials and a good forum if you get super stuck. Based in Japan, so the UI and UX is really clean.

Davinci Resolve Pro is a film editing software that's super good. There is a free version and a paid version. The forums are responsive. The programmers aren't always present. There is a healthy group of tutorials. US company. Clean UX. It does take a little bit of time to remember the shortcuts.

Tahoma2D is anti-AI and open source animation program. Takes a little getting used to, but is good for animations and doesn't crash as often as Animate. Programmers are in the forums and some bugs are fixed within hours. The forums are super responsive and helpful.

Krita open source and free, no AI. I'd rank it secondary to Clip Studio Paint (which is paid) I haven't tried the forums, but it's pretty intuitive and can stand for a lower level replacement for Painter, and do a lot of the basics of Photoshop. It's usually ranked higher than the equally open source Gimp.

Writer P AKA Writer+ (app for when you're on the go) is a simple word processor app for your phone that doesn't use AI. The original programmer stopped updating, so Writer+ person took over and isn't out to make a profit since it's free in the spirit of the original app. It has subfolders you can use. Since it was programmed before GenAI it doesn't have AI. Intuitive, easy to use. Fairly easy to upload the files through three dots->share. The files can save to your card or phone with some settings fussing. Simple word processor.

Inkscape is a free vector program and no AI. It is harder to use than illustrator and has less features. But if you're doing smaller vectors for one-offs with less complexity, it'll do you after some learning curve. Best of the lot. I hate Affinity Designer which is the same thing, only paid. (Neither Affinity program was worth the money paid)

Affinity (Designer, etc) swore to be AI-free and does Vector and Photos. The UX is messy, I dislike the program and regret paying for it. Inkscape and Krita are better UX and do the same thing. The forums aren't as friendly since there has been an onslaught of people seeing it's supposed to be a replacement for Photoshop and Illustrator, but the programmers aren't present. The people on the forums are often on edge about this assertion. And the capabilities of the program don't outshine basically Krita or Inkscape capabilities (both free). What is usually intuitive is not. UK company. If you're going to pay for a program, go for Clip Studio Paint which rivals Corel Painter.

Blender is a 3D art program and does not use GenAI. It can do 2D animation, but Tahoma is easier to use in this regard. It's open source and free. Plus there are plenty of tutorials. The forums can be touch and go sometimes, but there are plenty of sub Blender communities that might be responsive. It can also do animation.

Handmade vowed against AI and promised to never sell itself for stock prices to prevent AI (as a replacement for Etsy.)

Proton (to replace Google Suite) as suggested by SF Stories (see reblog) Vowed against AI. They are missing a spreadsheet, but have online and offline capabilities, plus a built-in VPN.

But you need a pro website...

Look up robots.txt and AI bots: https://www.cyberciti.biz/web-developer/block-openai-bard-bing-ai-crawler-bots-using-robots-txt-file/

Use cloudflare:

Use Nightshade:

https://nightshade.cs.uchicago.edu/whatis.html

which will poison the algorithm

Use Glaze:

Take Away:

The thing is you think you doing it alone will do nothing, but the more AI feeds on itself, AI images, the worse they become, and the less detailed so, denying it the images, adding poison or not being able to read the human text is eventually going to lead to an AI collapse.

And why not help that along?

I don't want to give cancer to poor people [Link] or make the planet burn faster [Link]. So GenAI collapse is everything I dream of. GenAI apocalypse is not.

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Oh I LOVE being tagged in things like this!

Not-quite-a-year-ago (it's August...this fic was posted last September) I shared "A Warrior in a Garden." It's a Good Omens fic written for the Good Omens Fairy Tale Mini-Bang 2024. This piece was actually a reverse-bang selection, meaning that the art came first and then I wrote my fic around it. (This is one of my favorite ways to write a fic...I am always so delighted to see where a story goes when kicked off with an out-of-context visual!)

Here is the delicious art by @smollsmule that inspired my fic:

Ineffable Arthuriana? INEFFABLE ARTHURIANA!!! And just LOOK at these textures. I feel like I'm looking at a tapestry come to life. LOVE.

SO. It would be easy to start a fic here. Pictures are excellent jumping-off places, of course...but I've always been a bit backwards. I see a pic and I think, "Oh! Well...how did they get to this point??"

And so I wrote "A Warrior in a Garden." And I still love it so much. I'm deeply proud of it. It's four chapters of Sir Aziraphale of the Table Round trying like hell to Do His Best(tm) and Crowley causing as much trouble as possible as Crowley le Fay, with a dose of historical accuracy to give it that Pratchett-ish flavor. It's one of my works that I love to re-read just for myself, because the story took on a life of its own and became greater than the sum of its parts.

I'd love for you to read it, if you have the time for just-shy-of-10K words:

oo i should be sleeping but i dont wanna so im gonna do this instead ~ thank u @elodiah for tagging me 💖💖💖

Fic Nostalgia Tag Game

Share the fic you posted as close to exactly one year ago as possible. You can just post a link if you like, but feel free to talk about it too! How did you feel about this fic then, how do you feel now? Do you love it, hate it, has your writing changed at all? Anything you’d do differently in hindsight? Go nuts!

i was sort of hoping it would be my first lokius fic, but alas, that one won’t be a year old til november!

anyway, 👆this one was inspired by/based on a beautiful fanart (linked in the fic)

I don’t feel like i did the artwork justice but i don’t think the fic’s bad. just not very good either 😅 i dont know whether i’ve improved since then, but i have gotten a little better at “bulking up” and finding areas that need fuller detail. rereading it now, i understand where certain passages could have been more fleshed out.

i’ll keep practicing 🥲 in the meantime, no-pressure tags for @angie-words, @sakascal and @naturallyteal

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truly from the bottom of my heart i hate the level of enshittification etsy has reached because it's still the best place to buy patterns for my hobby and every time i go scrolling through endless ai-generated bullshit to finally dig up a human-designed pattern i like, i'm hit with a deluge of 'popular!! 563 people are looking at this right now!! it's in 134632 baskets!! you must buy immediately!!!' it's a pdf file. it's a fucking pdf file. do you get off on trying to give people fomo over a fucking pdf file. fuck off. get diarrhea forever.